Then There Was Silence
by kaini-industries
Summary: They survived Jasmine, only to escape to a town straight from hell. Story notes: Long AU version of the S4 Jasmine arc. Fusion crossover with Silent Hill, but no prior knowledge of Silent Hill required.
1. On The Road

**THEN THERE WAS SILENCE  
**by Sky

**Summary: **They survived Jasmine, only to escape to a town straight from hell.  
**Rating:** R  
**Word count:** 70 000+

**Notes:** S4 AU, psychological horror, features S4 cast and Faith + Kate. Crossover with _Silent Hill 2 & 3_, but it is not necessary to know those games in order to understand this story. And note that the story is based on a very altered version of _Angel_ season four in general and the Jasmine arc specifically. (In this story, Cordelia had nothing to do with Jasmine/The Beast).

For those familiar with Silent Hill 2 & 3, just bear in mind that I've used the setting completely selectively and in a way that serves the Angel characters, whether it fits in with the games or not.

* * *

THEN THERE WAS SILENCE

Part I - The White Fog

* * *

xixixix

_1. On The Road_

xixixix

There were no more street lights.

They had reached the outskirts of the town and were now entering the countryside - or the wilderness from the looks of it. The long, winding road plunged into darkness, and after that it was only the narrow beams of the car headlights that gave any idea of their surroundings. There were no other cars either. Just the Plymouth she was sitting in and Gunn's old pick-up truck trailing right behind them.

On either side of the road there was nothing else to see except forests; gnarly old trees, tall trees, small trees - a whole bunch of different kinds of trees she had never seen in Los Angeles were now surrounding her on all sides.

Kate breathed against the passenger side window she was leaning on and watched as her breath created a misty circle on the glass.

It was damn cold too.

It wasn't raining yet, but guessing from the heavy clouds above them, it wouldn't be long until it would start pouring.

Kate glanced at her wrist watch; it was half-past two in the morning. She looked up at Angel sitting beside her. He was gripping the steering wheel of the Plymouth with both hands, occasionally glancing at the rear view mirror to check that Gunn was still following them.

His expression was distant and withdrawn. His whole body seemed to have closed in on itself, as if something was draining him from the inside.

_He's dead,_ Kate reminded herself, _there is nothing inside. But, he came to save me. There was that._

"Angel," she said quietly. She glanced at the back seat and saw that Cordelia and Fred were still sleeping, Cordelia's head leaning against Fred's shoulder. "Do you want to switch places?"

Angel looked over at her briefly and shook his head. "It's okay. I'm not tired."

Kate had never seen him look as tired as he did now.

But the car was quiet and Kate didn't feel like starting to argue. Because she was tired too. Weary to the bone. And they still had a good few hours before the sun came up, and even then it wouldn't be terribly light considering the dark clouds gathering in the horizon ahead.

She turned back to the window and stared at the hypnotizing row of trees flashing past the car.

After a few more moments of silence, Angel suddenly spoke. "Wesley?"

"Yes, I'm awake," the voice came from the back.

Kate turned to look at Wesley, who sat right behind the driver's seat. Upon hearing Angel's voice, Wesley leaned forward slightly, careful not to wake up Cordelia and Fred.

"Wesley, I -," Angel started quietly, then hesitated, "I think I saw a sign by this side of the road. The same sign, several times. I couldn't make out what it said, but it looked like a town's name. Did you see it?"

Wesley frowned and shook his head. "No, I haven't seen anything. But it is possible I dozed off for a minute or so."

"Hmm, I see," Angel said and fell into silence.

Wesley leaned back on his seat, but Kate could still see him looking at Angel surreptitiously. Kate felt that awkward feeling taking over her again.

She hadn't seen these people for a couple of years now. She had met Angel occasionally, when he had needed help with one thing or another, but mostly their meetings were brief and strictly business. Kate hadn't found a permanent job after being fired from the force. She had done odds and ends here and there, and just barely made a living, but it hadn't been too bad all in all. She had felt - peaceful, in a way.

Despite their past differences she had been glad every time Angel paid her a visit, no matter how short or for what purpose. Just to know that he still cared about her on some level made her feel she had a connection to the world - be it that it was through a dead man.

Then there had been several months when she hadn't heard anything from him at all. She had begun to suspect that he might have gotten on the wrong end of a stake. She tried not to dwell on what kind of feelings that thought brought up in her.

But then - the rain of fire, endless nights, deaths and plagues. She was pretty sure the end of the world was coming then. She had thought of leaving Los Angeles, escaping with the rest of the scared populace, but in the end didn't. In those first weeks of the coming apocalypse she had thought of him often. He was probably right at the front lines, battling whatever hellish fiend was trying to destroy the world this time.

She had wondered whether she should go and offer her help. Not much she could do, but she had never been one to just sit cowering in her home while the world was crying in pain.

And then suddenly, peace had fallen over the city. People started smiling, hugging each other on the street. The sun shone on every dark corner and nothing hurt anymore. There was only love and happiness.

It had freaked her out.

But then she too had found Jasmine's love and embraced it wholeheartedly. After that, nothing else had mattered.

And then he came for her.

He had a knife and a bloody cloth and he made her see the truth. And oh god, how much it had hurt to lose all that incredible peace and love she had never thought she was even capable of feeling. The truth had ripped it all right off her and she had felt even emptier than before.

But Angel didn't let her dwell on the aftermath. Urgently, he had said that Jasmine was after them, after those who knew the truth, and they had to get as far away from her as possible.

He and his crew had tried to bring Jasmine down and they had failed.

Now, they had to escape.

And Angel had said he wasn't going to leave without her. He already had to leave someone he cared about behind and he wasn't going to leave her too. Kate saw the conviction in his eyes, realized how much it meant to her, and took his hand.

And so they all left Los Angeles.

Left Jasmine and her love and her followers behind.

And now they were lost on the endless roads, aimlessly driving through United States.

Kate, Angel and this group of people who were not much more than strangers to her. It was all a bit too much to take in, even without the apocalypse looming behind them and Jasmine's minions constantly on their trail.

Kate started out of her thoughts; the car was slowing down.

Angel flashed the car lights two times and then pulled to a stop on the side of the road. Kate saw Gunn stop his truck right behind the Plymouth.

Kate frowned at Angel. "What is it?"

Angel was staring intently ahead. "There's something -"

Kate looked over her shoulder at Wesley, who merely shrugged in response. Wesley's face was withdrawn as well, but it didn't seem to be born out of weariness like Angel's expression; instead there was something tense and harsh about Wesley that Kate couldn't recall seeing before.

Angel suddenly got out of the car.

Cordelia stirred next to Wesley. She blinked her eyes sleepily. "Are we there yet?"

"Where there? We weren't going anywhere," Fred said next to her. She was awake now as well and yawned heartily. Then she glanced down. "Cordelia, did you drool on my shirt?"

Kate got out of the car as well, and soon after Wesley, Cordelia and Fred followed suit.

They were all now standing on the empty, dark road. The only light came from the headlights of the cars, casting long bright streaks of pale yellow on the damp asphalt. Behind them, Gunn was leaning against the open truck door and Faith was stretching her legs on the road. Connor came out of the truck as well and said something to Faith, which made her mock-punch him. Connor jumped away, laughing softly. The sound was eerie on the quiet road.

Angel ignored them all. He walked some twenty feet ahead and stopped in the middle of the road. For a long while, he just stood there, staring into the distance where the road disappeared into a rapidly approaching cloud of fog.

The rest of them all looked at each other, none the wiser as to why they had stopped in the middle of nowhere.

Wesley appeared next to Kate.

"Angel, is there a reason we stopped here?" he called out.

Angel still stood his back to them. He was completely still and quiet, and not in his usual predatory way, more like the reverse - a prey sensing a coming attack. Then he turned around and saw them all looking expectantly at him.

Cordelia yawned and wrapped her shawl tighter around her shoulders. "Angel, not that we don't appreciate the fresh air and all, but could you mind doing your late night freak show in a warmer location than this?"

Angel still said nothing, he seemed to be listening for something.

The others, however, were starting to get irritated.

"Are we gonna be camping here or what?" Gunn said, simultaneously with Connor's impatient, "Dad, c'mon!"

Kate couldn't help throwing a glance in Connor's direction; she didn't think she'd ever get used to someone calling Angel "dad". Angel had been very tight-lipped about *that* story, so Kate just scratched it up to yet more weird shit happening around Angel.

"There's a town about a mile or so ahead," Angel said suddenly.

Wesley frowned. "A town? I didn't see any mention of a town on the map."

"There wasn't. And there's something strange about it."

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Duh. It wouldn't be us, if nothing strange was happening. What I'm interested in is, does this town have hot, running water?"

"I don't think so. I think it's been abandoned. I can't sense any human presence here at all."

Fred perked up. "A town where no one lives? That's good news for us, right?"

"I wouldn't say that exactly..."

Faith came to stand next to the Plymouth as well. She carried a crossbow in her hands. "Hey, if it's still more than a mile ahead, your vamp senses might not be picking up any humans yet."

Angel shook his head. "No, I'm certain there aren't any."

Gunn looked thoughtful. "Now that you mention it, I haven't seen any cars coming or going down this road since we left the last place. I mean, it is the middle of the night, but if there's a town ahead you'd expect some traffic, right?"

Angel nodded grimly. "And there's something else as well," he said. "I can't sense any animals either, and there should be some in the forests surrounding us. But there are no living things here at all. It's as if they're just - empty."

Kate felt shivers going down her spine. She saw the others looking similarly stricken and eyeing their dark surroundings nervously.

"Okay," Cordelia took a deep, shaky breath. "Points for being incredibly ominous, yet again. Any place that gets you that freaked out is a place I don't wanna visit. Let's just get the hell out of here, okay?"

"I'm with Cordy here," Gunn said.

"And go where?" Fred said suddenly. Everyone looked at her. "We can't go back to the town we just came from. People there saw us, which means Jasmine will be waiting for us there. Maybe she's already sent someone after us. We aren't that far yet, we could get caught if we turn back."

"Fred's right," Angel said. "We can't go back."

Wesley looked pensive. "This is the only road I saw on the map. But you don't think the town ahead of us is safe?" he asked Angel, who nodded in confirmation. "Couldn't we just pass the town and keep on going?"

Angel shrugged helplessly. "I don't know what's ahead. I can sense there's a town, but all I know is that it doesn't feel right."

"And your senses are usually to be trusted," Wesley said. Angel and Wesley shared an odd look at that, and Kate wondered again what had happened to make those two act like they were walking on broken glass around each other.

"What about you, kid?" Faith said to Connor suddenly. Connor gave Faith a nasty look, which Kate supposed meant that he resented that particular nickname. "Don't you have your dad's supernatural senses as well? You picking up any weird mojo around here?"

Angel looked at Connor with a half-curious, half-hopeful expression.

But Connor shook his head.

"No, I can't sense anything wrong with this place," Connor said, then met Angel's eyes and added a bit hesitantly, "But like he said, it is pretty quiet here for a forest. Unusually quiet."

Angel gave him a weak smile. "Yes, that's exactly it."

Cordelia sighed, resigned. "So, what are we going to do then? Just stand here waiting for Jasmine's guys to catch up with us or go to some creepy ghost town and probably suffer horrible deaths. Whichever way, we're pretty much screwed, as usual."

"Just keeping up with the status quo then," Gunn agreed.

They all seemed to be expecting Angel to make the final decision. He looked at them all, each in turn, before nodding gravely. "We'll continue straight ahead."

No one argued against that.

"Um... before that, do you want to take a break? Eat something, walk around?" Angel asked them.

"No offense, Angel, but at three in the morning on a highway is not exactly an ideal picnic location. We could eat something when we get to Creepyville," Cordelia said.

Angel frowned. "We should avoid stopping in the town, if we can help it."

"Angel," Kate said. She had been quiet until now, but she had just remembered another problem they were facing. "If there are no other towns anywhere near and the sunrise is only a couple of hours away, I think we need to find shelter for you. And the rest of us need to sleep at least for a few hours. For that, any abandoned building will do."

Angel didn't seem to like that this inevitable fact had presented itself, but nodded at her. "You're right, we do need to find shelter." He looked up at them all. "Let's go then."

"Finally! It's fucking freezing in here," Faith said. Kate eyed her skimpy leather coat and tank top - and so did Connor, Kate noted with amusement.

"We're stopping over in Creepyville after all, then?" Cordelia asked.

"Yes," Angel said.

"Oh, yay."

They all went back to the cars in silence. Everyone seemed exhausted and tense, Angel more than any of the others. Kate glanced at him, when he was back behind the wheel and steered the car back to the road.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly.

Angel nodded tightly. "If you see anything suspicious there, Kate -" he said in a low voice and turned to look at her. He nodded toward the gun she was carrying. "Don't hesitate to shoot."

She nodded gravely and returned her eyes back to the empty dark road.

They drove straight into the thick fog and the trees disappeared from sight.


	2. Welcome To Silent Hill

xixixix

_2. Welcome to Silent Hill_

xixixix

Angel slowed down the car as they approached what seemed like the town entrance.

The uncomfortable, buzzing feeling at the back of his mind seemed to be overriding all his other senses now. He could barely hear the heartbeats of the humans in the car and even the car's humming seemed silent compared to the trembling he felt deep within himself.

The car came to a halt.

Angel stared at the sign next to the road. It was just barely visible under the cover of the white fog, like the rest of the landscape.

Angel saw Wesley craning his neck behind him, also looking at the sign. So, it wasn't just Angel's imagination then.

"That's the sign that I saw earlier," Angel said.

"Silent Hill..." Wesley read aloud. "Yes, it does seem that there's a town right ahead."

_Welcome to Silent Hill_, the sign announced. It was mostly nondescript, just like any other town sign they had seen on the way. But where it said _'Population'_, the numbers had been scratched off. If Wesley had been able to read that part in the darkness, he didn't say it out loud.

Cordelia took hold of Angel's shoulder and tried to peer over him to see the sign. "_Silent Hill?_ Right, because that doesn't sound creepy and ominous at all." She slumped back to her seat and Fred gave a small pat on her knee.

"Silent Hill doesn't sound that bad. It sounds - peaceful," Fred said, smiling wistfully.

Cordelia snorted. "Yeah, peaceful like a graveyard." She looked at Angel, pleading, "Just hit the pedal and speed through, maybe if we're fast we won't catch any ghosts."

"Cordy, look outside. The fog is so thick, even I can barely see ten feet ahead. There won't be any speeding through anything," Angel said.

The fog was grating on his already impaired senses. His hearing was distracted, he had trouble sensing the presence of other living creatures and now he couldn't even rely on his eyesight. His ability to see in the dark didn't much help when there was nothing else to see except a sea of murky whiteness expanding in every possible direction. At least his sense of smell remained unaffected.

Kate was tense next to him. She had barely taken her hand from the gun in her holster for the past mile and a half they had driven to the town.

"Kate, is something wrong?" He asked her. Her eyebrows were furrowed and she was staring at the misty road ahead of them.

"I think I saw something move in there."

The people in the backseat were immediately on alert, leaning forward in their seats.

"Okay, Kate, now is not a good time to discover a sense of humor," Cordelia said, and then added more quietly, "Please tell me you were joking..."

Kate shook her head.

Angel tried to see anything suspicious in the direction Kate was looking, but whatever it was that she had seen, it was gone now.

Behind their car, Gunn flashed the truck lights impatiently.

Angel started his car, before Gunn had a chance to get out of the truck. He drove towards the town slowly, constantly scanning their surroundings for anything unusual. Everyone in the car was quiet, vigilant.

They watched as the town gate suddenly appeared from the whiteness, and then behind it, they could see the faint outlines of other rectangular shapes rising up from the foggy ground.

They had finally arrived to Silent Hill.

Angel drove under the gate and entered what seemed to be the main street of the town. There were now two-three storey buildings surrounding them on both sides. It seemed like a regular town with various shops, grocery stores, bars and service stations scattered around a collection of apartment buildings

Except that there were no signs of life anywhere. The windows and doors were sealed shut, broken chairs and boxes cluttered the sidewalks and there was not a single living soul to be seen. The town was completely abandoned.

He drove along the main street, trying to look for a place to stop and take a look around. But everything seemed so desolate, so utterly _dead_, that the thought of spending any amount of time in this place grew more and more unappealing by the second.

Then the street ended.

Angel stopped the car and blinked in surprise.

There was a vast brick wall in the middle of the road, built between two brick buildings. The wall looked like it was a natural continuation of the buildings, but it was completely out of place on the road. It just didn't_ belong_ there.

The main street was cut off. In the other directions, a little further back, there were smaller side roads disappearing into the fog, but none of them looked like they were leading away from the town.

"This is not good," Cordelia said.

"I would have to agree with that," Wesley said.

Kate looked over at Angel. "What do we do now?"

Angel just shook his head slowly. "I don't know."

Fred was going to say something, when they heard a car door slam. Gunn appeared behind Angel's window and tapped on the glass.

Fred was out of the car in a second. "Charles, what are you doing? Get back in the car, we don't know what's waiting out there!"

"Relax, Fred. We're at a dead end, so I say we re-group and re-think this over. This place is as good as any. Besides," Gunn nodded over at Faith and Connor who had just jumped out of the truck as well, "even if we run into any nasty monsters, we've got a slayer, a vampire and Wonder Boy here on our side. I'd say our odds are pretty good."

Fred didn't seem convinced, but made room for Cordelia to get out of the car as well. Once everyone was on the street, they looked around, no one daring to move farther than a few feet from the cars.

"Well, as towns go, this one's pretty dull, if not for the 'straight from hell' vibe that is," Cordelia observed, then squinted at one of the shop windows. "Ooh, 50% discount! Boy, this store is right up some creep's alley; frilly lingerie, frilly swimsuits, frilly head caps... Kate, come and take a look!"

Kate raised her eyebrow at that. "Why me?" she muttered, but sauntered over to her anyway.

Wesley and Gunn were inspecting the brick wall.

"Why'd you think someone would put a huge ass brick wall in the middle of the road?" Gunn peered up at the wall, as if he could crash it down just by frowning at it. But the monstrous piece of misplaced architecture was a good thirty feet high and seemed to be as solid as it could get.

Wesley ran his hand against the wall. "Perhaps they have walled in an area in the middle of the town. An area they don't want anyone to see."

"Or maybe they didn't want anyone to leave from there..." Fred said, glancing around nervously.

Wesley looked at her grimly. "That's possible."

Angel paced next to the wall, the buzzing in his head growing louder and louder. He could now barely hear the others talking amongst themselves. Then he heard Faith calling his name. He looked up and saw that she was crouching near an alleyway and waving at him.

"Hey, Angel, come and check this out."

He jogged over to her, and knew what she had found even before she showed it to him. He could smell it clearly.

Blood.

Faith pointed at a dark red mark on the sidewalk, which continued in a thin blotchy line into the shadowed alley.

"Is that -"

"Yeah, it's blood," Angel confirmed. He tried to analyze the smell, but to his surprise found out he couldn't. He was sure that it was blood, but couldn't pinpoint whether it was old or new; human, animal or demon.

He took a step closer to the alley, peering into the darkness and trying to smell if there was anything more in there. Perhaps the source of the blood...

Then he saw something move in the dark. The fog in the alley was less thick and he could clearly make out a human shape. It seemed like a woman and she was raising her hands -

A sharp pain shot through his chest and he fell back, helplessly trying to cling to something with his hands. He fell on the sidewalk with a heavy thud, the pain in his chest increasing upon the impact.

He heard Faith yelling his name and the others running closer. Connor tried to run into the alley after the mysterious attacker, but Faith held him back, shouting at him.

Then Angel felt Cordelia's hand on his cheek and she touched his chest. "Stay still, Angel, it's okay -" she said in a soothing voice, and Angel blinked rapidly, trying to gather his thoughts. He used Cordelia's familiar presence as an anchor to ignore the pain and focus on what was happening.

He looked down and saw a wooden arrow sticking out of his chest. Just a few inches from his heart.

Everyone was standing around him now; he could clearly hear their heartbeats and their soft breathing even above the strange buzzing in his head. He felt very sleepy suddenly. He wanted so badly to just close his eyes and rest for a while.

Instead, he tried to sit up, but firm hands pushed him back.

"Angel, you should stay down. The arrow is still dangerously close to your heart," Wesley said. "Gunn, hold him still, I'll try to remove it."

Another pair of hands pressed down on his shoulders and he cried out in pain when the arrow was swiftly yanked out of his chest.

He felt better then. The wound was throbbing and he could feel blood oozing out of it, but at least the terrible sensation of wood so close to his heart was gone.

This time he managed to sit up and now someone's arms were supporting him.

Cordelia squeezed his hand. "Everything okay, Angel?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "I'm okay."

Wesley and Gunn hauled him to his feet, and he swayed slightly, but managed to stay upright.

Connor was still looking towards the alley. "You should've let me go after it," he complained to Faith. "It could be anywhere by now."

"So, it could've shot you too? Hey, I'm all for kicking the ass of whoever did this, but I get the feeling this town ain't the best place to start running around all gung-ho."

"Faith's right," Angel said. He clutched the wound on his chest. "We know now there are others in the town besides us. It's best if we stay all together."

"Agreed," Wesley said.

Cordelia was looking at Angel, worried. "So, what are we going to do? It's going to be morning soon and Angel needs to get rest. We have to find a place to stay. In here."

No one seemed to like the lack of options presented there.

Then Kate spoke up, "I think I saw an apartment building we could use back down the street. It wasn't boarded up and seemed to be in decent shape. Maybe we can set up shop in the second floor and keep guard."

Angel gave her a small smile. "That sounds fine." He fished around his pockets for the car keys and gave them to her. "Show us the way."

Kate nodded and went to start the Plymouth.

Gunn and Wesley supported Angel as he slowly made his way back to the car. The wound felt unpleasant so near his heart and he could feel blood constantly flowing from it, seeping through his shirt and his fingers. There was also something familiar about it -

As they reached the car, he glanced at the alley, half-expecting to see the woman standing there. However, the street was empty and partly shrouded in fog. There was more blood on the sidewalk now, though - his blood.

Angel looked at Faith getting back into Gunn's truck, followed by Connor.

Then he looked down at the wound in his chest.

Strange, Faith had once shot him in the exact same place. Only, that time with a poison arrow -

He wavered and took hold of the car door, starting to feel dizzy again. Wesley eased him down on the Plymouth's passenger seat and soon Kate was leading them to the place that would have to be their safe house for the following day at least.

Angel closed his eyes just as they passed another alley, and even if he did maybe see a shadow move there, he really couldn't open his eyes again.

xixixix

Everything was different now.

Cordelia looked around the apartment Kate had chosen to be their headquarters for the day. It was reasonably nice and spacey, if a little dusty, but Cordelia could deal with dust. After staking vampires for years, not to mention living with one who had a penchant for settling down in grimy old dwellings, Cordelia had become the grand master of dust.

But mostly she didn't care, because she felt weary and everything was different now.

The apartment seemed to consist of long hallways filled with creaky old doors that lead to smelly old rooms. But at least so far, the floor boards were steady under their feet and no monsters had been jumping out of the shadows. Always a plus in Cordelia's book.

She sat on the bed next to Angel. The room they had chosen for him had the smallest window and the thickest curtains, therefore ideal for a snoozing vampire.

She took his hand. "How are you feeling?"

Angel opened his eyes slightly. "I've been better."

Once he would have smiled at her, but not this time. Not anymore. Cordelia wasn't sure what exactly had changed, except that everything had. She remembered things now, strange things, about her real life. But it was all so blurry compared to the sharp, crystal clear confusion and pain she saw reflected in everyone else around her - and in herself, those few times when she dared to look at herself in the mirror.

Once she would have spent hours in front of the mirror, putting on make-up and making sure her hair was perfect. Now, she could barely bother to pick up a hairbrush.

She wondered whether she would ever get a sugar high on seeing designer catalogues again.

But at least, she still had Angel. Things had been strained between them for a while now, but she never doubted for a minute that he didn't love her - in some way - and she had never been more certain of how much he meant to her. But the truth remained that after regaining her memories she had ran away from him and straight to Connor. Even though she had returned after a while, things hadn't gone back to normal.

How could they have?

It started raining fire for Pete's sake. The Beast came and nearly killed them all. Then there were the plagues and all that other fun beginning of the apocalypse stuff.

And then Angelus.

She had offered herself to Angelus.

Angel didn't really talk to her about that, but she knew it was just under the surface. An unspoken undercurrent.

But they had survived all that. They had survived even when Jasmine came and started taking over the world. Their small group had survived and ran like hell.

And now they were all together and it should have been good, but instead the awkwardness and the pain undermined every word, every smile they gave each other.

It should have been different.

Angel was studying her. Cordelia smiled a bit, abashed that she had once again lapsed into silence. It wasn't like her; she was Cordelia Chase - Queen of Quips, not the silent, introspective type.

"Cordelia, you should get some rest too," Angel said after a while.

Cordelia took the hint and stood up. "If there's anything you need, I'll be right around the corner," she said.

He nodded.

She hesitated for a moment and then leaned down and placed a quick kiss on his forehead. "You nearly died, Angel, don't do that again," she whispered desperately in his ear.

Angel touched her face lightly. "Don't worry, Cordy, I won't."

She turned her face away, before he could see the tears springing up in her eyes, and left the room. She closed the door behind her, took a deep breath, wiped her eyes, and went to join the others.

The kitchen was far too cramped to fit six people, so they were all lounging around in the living room when Cordelia arrived. Everyone was tense and pensive. Of course, they had been that way since leaving LA, but this town seemed to bring them all ever so closer to the edge.

Cordelia felt another pang of loss that Lorne wasn't there. He could cheer up a room in two seconds flat - or annoy a room, but at least that usually lifted the despair for a while. However, Lorne was probably crooning love songs to Jasmine at the moment. She wondered if she'd ever see him again.

Fred looked up at Cordelia. "How is Angel doing?"

"He's resting," Cordelia said as casually as she could. "Once he gets his beauty sleep, he'll be fine in no time."

Fred nodded, relieved. The atmosphere in the room seemed to relax slightly.

Cordelia looked at them. "So, what's the plan then? Are we all crashing here or -"

"Actually, I've got a question," Gunn said. He had been standing by the window, apparently keeping guard. "How did that thing know to shoot Angel with a wooden arrow? Was it just casually hanging around with a crossbow, waiting for vampires to stroll by?"

No one seemed to have an answer for that.

"It's like they were waiting for us..." Fred said quietly.

"I don't think it's safe for us to settle down here just yet," Wesley said. "It might be a good idea to take a look around first. See if there are any other routes that lead away from the town."

Faith hopped up from the sofa. "I'm all for that." Connor, who had been sitting beside her, added emphatically, "Yeah, me too."

"Wait a minute," Fred said, frowning at them. "Angel just got shot by an unknown assailant. Is it really a good idea to go back there looking for trouble?"

Gunn looked at her grimly. "As opposed to what? That we sit here and wait until they come to us?" Fred seemed like she was going to protest, but Gunn held his hand up. "Look outside, it's getting light. The sun's going to be up soon and usually monsters stay in their hiding places during daylight. I say we check around while they're dozing off and see what we're dealing with."

"Yes, I agree with that," Wesley said. "It would be best to use the daylight hours to our advantage."

Kate nodded. "That sounds fine with me." She held up the gun she never seemed to part from these days. "As long as I can carry whatever weapons I can."

"We'll stack up on the armory for sure," Faith said. She and Connor got up and went to rummage through the bags of weapons they had piled in one corner of the living room.

Cordelia looked at the one bag she had been able to bring back from LA with her. One change of clothes was all she had, aside from a diminishing supply of hygienic products and a towel that desperately needed washing. While on the run from Jasmine, they had mostly concentrated scavenging towns for food supplies and water. Not clothes or other 'luxury' items.

Then she remembered the creepy lingerie shop she had showed Kate. She started smiling; she may be a different Cordelia Chase now, but she was pretty sure any incarnation of her would feel better after a bout of retail therapy - especially if it didn't leave a single dent in her non-existent wallet.

"Hey, I saw plenty of shops down the main street. While we're scouting around the place anyway, surely we could spare a little time on restocking our supplies? Maybe a few extra shirts... you know, things like that." She gave them a bright smile. It felt good to be able to use that expression once in a while.

Kate raised her eyebrow. "You want to go shopping? In the town that would give Children of The Corn a run for its money?"

"Sure, if you want to call it 'shopping', why not?" Cordelia grinned.

Kate rolled her eyes.

To Cordelia's surprise Wesley seemed to warm up to the idea. "All right, we should make a list of things we need. It would be much more convenient to get them here rather than in an inhabited town. A town inhabited by humans, that is."

Cordelia could feel the mood in the room lift a bit at that. Maybe all of them could use some retail therapy.

Faith got up, holding a sword and her trusty old crossbow. "If we're all heading out, we should split into groups, right? Strength in numbers. I bet Mr. Clingy's here with me..." She pointed at Connor, who scowled at her, annoyed. "Dunno about who else."

"We can't all head out," Fred reminded. "Someone has to stay here and watch over Angel. Whoever shot him might come here while we're away. And if he's sleeping..."

Everyone was quiet for a moment. Cordelia wanted to volunteer, but she didn't think she would be much protection against any monster that decided to break in. Besides, shopping...

Suddenly, Wesley spoke up. "I'll stay with Angel. The rest of you split into groups of three and get armed. No one should go out without weapons."

Cordelia saw the others were as surprised at Wesley's decision to stay as she was - aside from Kate, but that wasn't unexpected. Cordelia doubted that Angel had told her what had really happened during the last year.

Gunn cleared his throat. "I guess that's all settled then. Let's get ready people, the sun's nearly up."

As Cordelia picked a light katana sword as her protection, she glanced surreptitiously over at Wesley. His expression was closed off, unreadable, as it always were these days. He watched for a while as they gathered weapons and teamed up, and then turned back to the hallway.

xixixix

Angel felt the sun rise.

He shifted on the bed restlessly. The curtains kept the daylight out effectively, but he could still see a bright line of light framing the edges of the curtains. He turned his head away from the window and doubted that he would be able to get any sleep at all today.

The pain in his chest didn't seem to subside as quickly as it should have and he wondered if it had something to do with this place. He still kept hearing the low buzzing at the back of his mind. The noise was as constant and distracting as the white mist surrounding the town.

But the house was quiet now. The others had been talking for a long while and had then gone out in one big group. They had made enough noise to wake the dead - or a vampire - and Angel had briefly thought of yelling at them to shut up. He doubted that they would have appreciated that.

But they were all gone now - save for one other person.

The door opened and Wesley came in.

Angel was surprised that Wesley had been the one to stay behind. If he were honest, he couldn't help being a little - suspicious, as to Wesley's motivation, but also secretly pleased that apparently Wesley wasn't that reluctant to spend time in his company anymore.

Wesley must have thought he was already asleep, as he sat on a nearby armchair quietly and just - stared.

Finally, Angel turned around and met Wesley's eyes. They were as cold and hard as he had feared.

"How's the wound?" Wesley asked.

"Getting better," Angel lied.

"Good." Wesley lifted something on the small table next to him and Angel saw Wesley was holding several books in his hands.

Wesley saw him looking at them. "I found these in the living room," he explained. "Some of these seem to deal with the town's history. If we have to stay here for long, it might be useful to know more about this place."

Angel nodded. "Good thinking."

He watched as Wesley opened one of the books and flipped through the thin, delicate pages. Wesley frowned in concentration, traced a line with his finger and then skipped back to the beginning of the book, his frown deepening.

Angel remembered that look very well.

Cordelia had called it Wesley's research mode - his version of a 'game face' - no doubt a remnant from his days of scholarship in the Council. He had seen Wesley looking like that many times; long hours spent researching in their first office and then during the summer Wesley, Cordelia and he had spent all their free time trying to defeat as many demon opponents as possible. Wesley had camped for days in Cordelia's living room, surrounded by mountains of old books that smelled of leather and wood.

Angel smiled fondly at that memory. It was only a few years ago - such a tiny scrap of time in his long life - but the distance to those happier times couldn't be wider.

He propped himself further up on the pillows. "Do you need help?"

Wesley barely glanced at him. "No, that's all right. It's better that you rest for now." Wesley's brow furrowed as he seemed to find something. He looked at the other books spread out next to him. "I think I saw..."

"What is it?"

Wesley got up suddenly. "I need to get another book from the living room." He saw Angel looking at him questioningly and his expression softened just the slightest bit. "I'll be right back."

Angel nodded and watched as Wesley left the room.

He was gone for a long time.

Angel started wondering whether he should go and check up on him. But he felt tired. Very tired. The sun was getting up higher in the sky and it was time for him to sleep. His eyes kept closing and the room kept blurring in and out of view.

Suddenly he jolted awake. He blinked his eyes for a moment, but his vision remained blurry. He was lying sprawled on the bed and figured he must have dozed off for a while.

Someone was sitting in the armchair.

He lifted up his head to look, but his eyes were so unfocused he couldn't properly make out the figure.

"Wesley?" He called out. The dark figure didn't move. Angel tried scenting the air - it didn't smell like Wesley. But then again, so far his senses hadn't been very reliable in this place.

The figure seemed to be a tall man, dressed in dark clothes, but that was the most Angel's blurry eyesight could make of him.

The man got up from the chair and walked closer to Angel.

Angel looked blearily up at him.

The man extended his hand to Angel.

"She's coming, we have to go," he said in a toneless voice. "Come with me."

"What -" Angel was nonplussed. He tried to shake his head to clear up his thoughts, but too late realized that was a mistake. He felt dizzy and the pain in his chest made its presence known again.

When Angel didn't respond, the man took his hand and pulled him up. By sheer force of will, Angel managed to stay on his feet. He realized he was the same height as the other man.

The man didn't let go of his hand, instead he started to drag Angel towards the door.

"Follow me," he said.

Angel didn't understand at all what was going on.

But when the man led him out of the room and into the dark hallway, he didn't resist.


	3. Chasing Ghosts

xixixix

_3. Chasing Ghosts_

xixixix

"This place is heaven!"

Cordelia squealed in an entirely undignified manner as she held up a gorgeous purple blouse against the light. It was genuine silk and shimmered against the faint morning light. She hugged the soft silk against her chest. This was the real deal. No more cheap Walmart crap for her.

"Not that I don't enjoy a good scavenge like the next guy, but shouldn't we be on the look out for any big nasties?" Gunn complained. He stepped over the shattered glass from the shop door they had broken and peered out on the street.

Cordelia paid him no mind. The shop looked as abandoned as the rest of the town, but for some reason all the shelves and racks were filled with brand new clothes that were only moderately dusty. She couldn't believe her luck.

But Kate was eyeing the shop dubiously.

"This doesn't feel right. The owners could come back for these things. We shouldn't take anything," Kate said. She was clearly disapproving of Cordelia's idea of a free shopping spree.

"Are you kidding?" Cordelia snorted. "Who's going to return to this hell hole? I bet we could burn this place down to the ground and no one would notice a thing. They might even set up a parade for us."

"Didn't you just say this place was heaven?" Kate frowned.

"I only meant that in the most shallow, materialistic sense there is." Cordelia smiled sweetly.

"You mean in the sense that you get to steal expensive clothes without consequences?"

"Ladies, enough with the yammering." Gunn turned to them. "I'm betting no demon within five mile radius is gonna come anywhere near us if you keep making so much damn noise."

"Well, aren't you lucky you got stuck with us then." Cordelia grinned at him. Gunn rolled his eyes.

"I have to agree with Cordelia - reluctantly," Kate added as she saw Cordelia's satisfied expression. "It's better if we drive them away from us rather than towards us."

"Yeah, well, one of them's definitely keeping watch on us," Gunn said grimly. He was eyeing a foggy alleyway on the opposite side of the street.

"What?" Cordelia whispered and crouched beneath the shop window. She poked out her head, just enough to see the street. "Did you see one of them?"

"I saw movement there and I'm betting it wasn't a raccoon. At least not if Angel was telling the truth that there are no animals here."

Kate came to stand by Gunn's shoulder, weapon at ready. "Should we check it out?"

Cordelia was still looking towards the alley. "Are you sure you weren't just imagining it? It's so foggy out there I can't see squat. Let's see, there's white, white, more white, and then - oh, wait!"

Gunn crouched down next to her. "What is it?"

"There," Cordelia pointed. Seeing her own shaking hand unnerved her, and she quickly put it down. "It looks like - a human, maybe?" The form she had seen started moving and Cordelia jumped back, crashing right into Kate.

"Ow! What the hell -"

"Kate, shush!" Gunn said. Cordelia looked over at his tense features. So, he had seen it too.

"That thing ain't no human..."

They watched in silence as the gray human shaped blob distinguished from the misty surroundings. It was hunched over and trashing from side to side, as if struggling to get free.

And as it got closer, Cordelia realized, it really *was* struggling to get free.

Its skin was wrapped around it like a straitjacket.

"What the hell is that?" Kate whispered.

Gunn squared his shoulders and stood up. "Let's go find out."

"What? Are you crazy? Get down!" Cordelia hissed.

"It doesn't seem to be moving that fast. If it's dangerous it's best we get it first than let it hunt us down when we're not looking."

Kate stood up as well and nodded. "I'm ready."

"Kate!"

Kate looked down at Cordelia. "You can stay here, if you want, but Gunn's right. We can take it."

Cordelia bit her lip and dared a look at the creepy creature making its way down the road. The way it was moving sent shivers down her spine. But, it hadn't seem to have noticed them yet. They could take it down caught unaware, if they moved quickly.

"Okay, I'm coming too. No way I'm staying here alone."

Cordelia grabbed her sword and tiptoed after Gunn and Kate.

Gunn and Kate were already moving like experts, giving each other hand signals and poising their weapons. The creature still continued moving down the street making its jerky, writhing movements and it seemed entirely oblivious to their presence.

But as Gunn edged closer to it and poised his axe for attack, the creature suddenly turned around and swung its body straight at him like some sort of blunt missile. Gunn let out a cry of surprise and quickly ducked out of the creature's reach. It had no weapons other than it's own body, but it was unnaturally fast and strong. And disturbing as hell.

Then, as it turned towards Cordelia and Kate, Cordelia realized with dawning horror one other thing wrong about the creature. It had no face.

"Holy shit!" Kate yelled next to her. "What the hell is that?"

"I don't know, but it's coming right at us!" Cordelia shouted. She started retreating, holding her sword high with shaking hands.

Kate seemed to have steadier hands than Cordelia did, as she carefully took aim with her gun and shot the creature several times. The creature started trashing even more at the impact of the bullets, but they didn't stop it from proceeding towards them.

Then suddenly, Gunn appeared behind the creature with a war cry and sunk his axe in its skull. It twitched for a moment and then unceremoniously fell down on the ground. A large pool of dark blood formed around its head.

"Oh thank god..." Cordelia breathed out.

But she didn't have much of a break.

"Guys -" Kate said, looking over Gunn's shoulder. "I think it brought friends..."

Cordelia lifted her head and saw several more creatures appearing from the mist. And sure enough, they belonged to the same clan of straitjacket-skin wearing monstrosities as the first one.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Cordelia shouted.

"This ain't no joke," Gunn said, "I say we run!"

"I concur!"

Cordelia sprinted off to a side street that she remembered they had passed by earlier. The street seemed to go uphill and she saw a sign with a red cross ahead.

She glanced behind her shoulder and saw that Gunn and Kate were following her. While the creatures were definitely on the list of creepiest uglies she'd seen so far, they didn't win points for running speed. They were still trashing their merry way on the main street.

Cordelia looked to the side and saw a door that was slightly ajar. It seemed to lead to some kind of a grocery store. _Great_, she thought, _a hiding place *and* food!_

"Guys!" she called out to Gunn and Kate. "In here!"

Yet more creatures appeared from an alleyway nearby and Kate started shooting towards them.

Cordelia went to the open door and peeked inside. It was clean and smelled of bread and fresh fruit. She didn't know how that was possible, but at this point she didn't care. She took one more step inside and looked around. There was a back door and more importantly, no creepy crawlies.

She turned back to the door, to yell for Gunn and Kate, and then froze.

There was no door.

Panicked she looked around. There was no window either.

In fact, now that she blinked, it was suddenly pitch black as well.

"Oh crap..." she whispered, her heart pounding. "I'm totally trapped here, aren't I."

_I'm totally trapped in the dark and all alone._

xixixix

Wesley left the living room, utterly confused.

He walked back down the hallway, clutching yet another _Unabridged History of Silent Hill_ in his hands. There seemed to be several of them in the bookshelf he had found. 12 identical copies, in fact. Most of the rest of the books in the shelf were old, leather bound and worn at the edges. They were also all filled with blank pages.

The only books that seemed to have any text in them at all were those about various histories of the town. Mining operations, history of agriculture in the region and so on... All very normal and common enough topics.

All written by the same man; the publishing dates spanning over a period of 150 years.

The last records about the town were written about 30 years ago. After that the town did not seem to have had any inhabitants. A true ghost town.

Wesley glanced at the book he was holding. _Unabridged History of Silent Hill _by Thomas William Gate.

Mr. Gate had been quite a prolific man during his 200 odd years of living.

Wesley shook his head. It was ridiculous. Would it kill them to find one normal location for once? Yes, he supposed it might. After all, it was Angel who had led them here, unknowingly perhaps, but still drawn towards a place shrouded in mystery and - no doubt - death. And now Wesley had volunteered to spent more awkward time watching over Angel, instead of joining the others in finding a way out of the place. He hoped Angel would at least have had the decency to have fallen asleep by now. Wesley couldn't quite decide whether to be touched or annoyed by Angel's pathetic attempts at reconciliation with him. His gut reaction was to be derisive more than anything, he supposed.

Then sometimes, when he felt like challenging himself, he wondered why was it so important for him to resist in the first place.

Wesley didn't get far in that line of thinking, as he stopped and stared suspiciously at the bedroom door. It was ajar.

"Angel?"

Cautiously, he opened it and saw that Angel wasn't lying on the bed anymore. There was a blood stain on the covers, where his wound had bled. Angel was nowhere to be seen.

Wesley frowned and looked around the room. It was a small bedroom with one bed, very few pieces of furniture and an en-suite bathroom, not many places to hide. He retreated back to the hallway. He considered for a moment calling out for Angel, but thought better of it. Instead, he went back to the room, took his crossbow and picked up a flashlight.

He had barely started walking down the hallway, when he saw movement in the shadows ahead.

A woman.

She was staring at him. Her wet hair dripping water on the floor.

Wesley held up the crossbow and took a step closer. The woman took a step back, right in the beam of light coming from a small window.

Wesley's eyes widened in shock.

"Justine?" he said hoarsely, "What -"

The woman shook her head, turned around and started walking away. Wesley ran after her, his mind stuck between disbelief and utter shock. He rounded a corner and saw that she was already descending the stairs to the lower levels.

Wesley clicked on the flashlight and went after her. The flashlight bounced across walls and furniture in a dizzying spin, as Wesley chased the woman. Her form kept coming in and out of view in the narrow beam of light. She was turning corners, running through dark hallways, always just out of reach. Wesley hadn't realized that the building was this large from the outside. The hallways seemed to go on forever.

Then he saw Justine's hand disappear behind a corner, leading to yet another dark hallway. Now she was nearly within his grasp; he rounded the corner and reached for her -

And ran straight into someone. They both let out a surprised cry and stumbled down on the floor. Wesley landed on top of the other person, his breath knocked out of him.

He raised himself on his elbows and looked at the person lying under him.

"Angel?"

"Wesley? What are you doing here?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing."

Wesley squinted at him. He could barely make out Angel's features in the dim corridor. The flashlight had rolled further away, just out of his reach.

"I think I saw someone -" Angel started, then shook his head. "No, it couldn't be. It'd be impossible -"

"Who did you see?"

"Holtz."

Wesley frowned. "Holtz? That's -"

"Yeah, I know. I was probably just imagining it."

"Maybe you weren't..." Wesley said quietly, considering the improbable coincidence of them both seeing apparitions of Holtz and Justine in the same place.

"Wesley..."

"Yes?"

"You're still there."

Wesley looked at him blankly for a moment, before realization hit and he tried to get up. He didn't get far. Angel had placed his hands over Wesley's waist and kept him in place.

"Angel?"

"Hmm?" Angel brought his face closer to Wesley's, tracing Wesley's jaw lightly with his lips. Not kissing, barely even touching, but close enough that it brought chills down Wesley's back.

Wesley held still, he didn't know what Angel was playing at now, but he didn't move either. He just waited.

He didn't have to wait for long. Angel turned his face so that their lips brushed against each other and that at least was a clear sign. It was just them in a dark corridor - _well, two can play this game,_ Wesley thought. He took hold of Angel's shirt with his hand and pulled him up, their lips crashing against each other. Angel spared no force in kissing him back, and Wesley knew exactly how to respond to that. He pushed Angel down against the floor, moved himself into a better position, and bit down on Angel's neck.

Angel threw back his head in pleasure and lifted up his knee, so that it ground straight against Wesley's crotch. Wesley lifted his head up at that, panting heavily.

In a dizzy haze, he looked back down only to realize that Angel had gone oddly still under him. Still - and completely quiet. Frowning, Wesley pushed himself up on his hands again, and blinked his eyes until he made out the form beneath him, outlined by the faint beam of the flashlight that was lying on its side, further away.

Realization hit and he cried out in shock, scrambling to his feet so fast he nearly lost his balance. Shaking in helpless repulsion, he closed his eyes and then quickly opened them again.

No, it was still there.

He stared at the rotting corpse on the floor in front of him.

The corpse's skin was mostly gone, revealing a grinning skeleton beneath. Its clothes were torn and faded, most of them lying in shreds on the floor. It was clear that the corpse had been there for quite some time.

Wesley leaned his shoulder against the wall, still shaken to the core. He looked around the hallway, but there was absolutely no sign of Angel or anyone else.

It was just him and the corpse on the floor.

Then the vile smell of decomposing flesh hit him and he nearly retched. Wesley didn't even dare to look down what might have gotten on his clothes. He grabbed his flashlight and the crossbow and made his way back to the apartment, and the small bedroom as fast as he could.

Without pause, he tore open the bathroom door and started stripping off his clothes.

The water from the old creaky pipes came up in a narrow lazy stream that barely constituted a shower, but at the moment Wesley didn't care about anything except ridding himself off from all traces of the dead body.

xixixix

Fred was looking at the shopping list in her hand.

_Matches, batteries, bullets, blankets, warm clothes, water, bread, cans of fruit, tuna cans,_ just any cans, any fruit, or any food... any food at all really. Well, actually, she had stopped writing at _'tuna cans'_ and then just underlined the word _'food'_ three times.

She sighed.

And so far there had been none.

What did they expect really? This town had obviously been abandoned for years. She doubted they would find any edible food here at all, aside from expired cans of anchovies maybe.

She looked up and saw another store window across the street.

"Hey, that looks promising!" She ran up to the window and her face fell.

"Oh, look, you found another hardware store, well done you," Faith said. She patted Fred on the back.

"No need to be sarcastic," Fred scowled. "I seem to be the only one here who remembers that we need to eat sometimes as well. To do that, we need to find food, and so far you two haven't been very helpful at that."

"Hey, food's not a problem since we've got Master Huntsman at our service," Faith laughed and pointed at Connor.

Connor walked over to them, looking annoyed. "That wasn't a joke. I could really hunt something for you, if you want."

"Sure thing, honey, I got it." Faith grinned at Connor. "Except didn't Angel say that there were no animals in these parts? You picking up that too?"

Both Fred and Faith looked at Connor curiously. Connor seemed uncomfortable under their scrutiny. "I don't know. My senses aren't as strong as his," he finally admitted.

Faith flung her arm around his shoulders. "Don't worry, you're still young. I'm sure you'll pick it up later."

Connor pushed her arm away and walked to the store window next to Fred. "We could still take some supplies from here. These places sell tools, matches... that kind of thing, right?"

"Yeah," Fred nodded. "We should take a look and see if there's anything we need."

"What about food then? We've got enough for a couple of days, haven't we?" Faith asked.

"Yes, but seven people consume food at a faster rate than we have been able to keep up with, especially when some of them -" Fred eyed Faith pointedly, "tend to repeatedly exceed the rationed portions. We're going to need to restock sooner rather than later. And every time we do that where there are people... well, the bigger the risk is that Jasmine is going to catch us."

"So, better stick to the outskirts then," Faith said. "And hey, once we get out of this hellhole, we could find a nice little hunting patch for Junior here."

Connor scoffed at her. He went to the store door and was about to reach for the handle, when he froze. He looked up and turned his head towards the road where the buildings disappeared into thick fog.

"I heard voices. Someone was shouting," he turned to look at Fred. "I think it was Gunn."

Fred paled. She knew it. She had known something bad would happen if they went out...

_But not to Charles_, she thought furiously, _not here and not now_.

"Something must have gotten to them," she said bitterly. She looked at Connor, resolve in her voice. "Where is he? Can you tell?"

"Maybe on the other side of those buildings, I'm not sure... But if we get closer I can track them down."

"Lead the way, kid." Faith raised her crossbow and nudged Fred. "Get armed and ready, girlfriend, we're going to rescue your guy."

Fred didn't hesitate. She held the gun Wesley had given to her at ready and when Connor sprinted into a run, tracking the voices, she and Faith followed right behind him. But when they had ran down the street only for a minute or so, Connor came to a halt.

Fred looked up and saw what had stopped him.

A man was standing in the middle of the street, just barely visible in the ever-present fog swirling around him. Fred could see that he was tall and wore dark clothes. Maybe a long black coat?

"Is that Angel?" she asked Faith in a low voice.

Faith pointed up at the sky. "How could he be? It's the middle of the day, Fred."

Fred squinted up at the sky where she could see the faint light circle of the sun behind the clouds. But the clouds were heavy and dark, and it looked like it was going to rain.

"But maybe the clouds are dark enough..."

Faith shook her head. "It doesn't work that way. Daylight is daylight for a vampire."

"So, who is that then?" Fred whispered. She looked over at Connor. He was staring at the man, his whole body tense and poised for defense or attack.

"No idea, but I'm getting a real bad feeling about this," Faith said. She lifted her crossbow slightly, so that it was resting against her arm at the ready.

"Dad?" Connor called out.

No sooner had Connor said that when the man moved suddenly sideways and disappeared into an alleyway. Connor was on his tracks in a second.

"I'm going to check it out," he called out to Faith and Fred.

"Dammit!" Faith said, and ran after Connor.

Fred wasn't sure what to do, she could hardly keep up with Faith and Connor, but she was certainly not going to stay standing alone in the middle of the street and do nothing. And Charles might be in trouble, but she didn't know where...

She ran after Faith and Connor.

But before she entered the alleyway where the man had disappeared, she hesitated, then turned around and yelled, "Charles! Charles, where are you?"

Not hearing any reply, she reluctantly turned back to the alley and started to follow Faith and Connor's echoing footsteps.

"Wait for me!"

xixixix

Wesley had been surprised to find clean clothes in the bedroom wardrobe.

They were plain cotton clothes, old and worn and most half-eaten by moths, but they fit well enough. Wesley had left his only change of clothes in the car and he sure as hell wasn't going to wear the ones he had just taken off.

He was just pulling on a coarse gray cotton shirt, when the door opened. Wesley immediately reached for the crossbow, but froze when he saw Angel standing by the door.

Angel looked at him for a moment and then closed the door behind him.

"Why are you changing your clothes?"

Wesley's throat felt dry, he had to make an effort to keep his voice steady. "I had to take a shower."

"So, I guess the pipes work then?" Wesley could only nod in response. Angel gave him a small smile. "That's good. I'm sure the others will be pleased."

Wesley said nothing, he had trouble keeping his voice - or his racing pulse - in check, still helplessly consumed by the memory of Angel underneath him.

He watched as Angel walked over to the bed and laid down.

"Where were you?" Wesley managed to ask after a moment.

Angel shrugged. "I went out."

Wesley frowned at that. He looked at the window, and the light coming from behind the curtains. "In the middle of the day?"

Angel closed his eyes. "I kept to the shadows."

Angel looked like he was going to fall asleep. Wesley felt the same dread and suspicion he had felt earlier starting to creep back and settle in his bones. Barely repressing a shudder, he took a few steps closer to Angel.

As far as he could tell, this Angel seemed solid and real enough - but so had the apparition he had met earlier.

This Angel looked the same as the one - the real one - whom Wesley had last seen sitting on that bed, asking if he could help. But now, there was something odd about Angel lying there... Wesley's eyes were drawn towards Angel's chest. And after a moment he realized; he couldn't see any blood on his shirt. In fact, there was no arrow hole in his shirt at all.

"Did you change your clothes as well?" he asked Angel, although he already knew the answer.

"No," Angel said, without opening his eyes.

Wesley stepped back. There was that same naked horror he had experienced when he had seen Justine staring at him in the dark hallway.

He closed his eyes briefly and when he opened them he expected to see that rotting corpse lying on the bed instead of Angel. He didn't.

Angel was still there.

Wesley backed to the door, he grabbed the bag he had left on the armchair.

"I'll go and see where the others are," he said hastily.

Angel didn't respond, he seemed to be asleep.

Or maybe he wasn't there at all.

Wesley took his gun from the bag and left to find the others.

xixixix

Kate ran up the street, Gunn trailing right behind her.

They were leaving the ever growing numbers of faceless creatures behind them, but now they were facing a new problem.

"Cordy!" Gunn was yelling. "Cordelia! Where the hell did she go?"

Kate shook her head. "I didn't see her. One minute she was there and then she was just - gone."

Kate had holstered her gun. She had ran out of bullets soon, but she still had the crossbow strapped to her back. But she doubted that arrows would work on the creatures, if bullets didn't even slow them down. So far, only Gunn's hubcap axe seemed to have done the trick.

"I think I saw her going up the hill," Gunn said, then pointed ahead. "Hey, see that? A hospital sign."

Kate squinted up the road and saw a large sign with a red cross in it. As they ran past the sign, the road started becoming steeper and the buildings were farther apart. They were going up a hill leading away from the town center.

Kate glanced behind her and didn't see the creatures anymore.

"I think we can slow down now, they don't seem to be following us up here."

Gunn stopped and hunched over. He held his hands on his knees and panted heavily. Kate pulled to stop too, out of breath herself.

"I can't see them anymore," she said.

She turned to look ahead and saw a large building on top of the hill. The hospital, she assumed. The grounds around the hospital had less buildings and more greenery; the area was littered with grand old oak trees, ornamental park benches and there were even some idyllic willow trees creating leafy arcs over small pathways. It would have been a nice place, if not for the ominous white fog hanging above the ground like a shroud. That, and the high possibility of a gruesome death by nightmarish creatures, obviously.

Gunn seemed to have gathered his bearings again. He was looking around with a concerned frown.

"So, now we just gotta find Cordelia before those ugly ass beasts find her."

_If they haven't already_, Kate thought grimly.

"Are you sure she ran up this way?" Kate asked Gunn.

"No, I heard her yelling for us, but I didn't see where she went. But I don't think she went back down there anyway." Gunn fell silent. "At least I hope not."

Kate wanted to reassure him that they would find Cordelia. But if she wasn't up on the hill, her chances weren't good back in the town.

Kate studied the profile of the hospital, which wasn't much more than a looming dark rectangle obscured by the fog. It didn't look any more welcoming than the rest of the town. Who knew what kind of horrors an abandoned hospital could hide inside.

Kate nodded toward the hospital. "You think she went there?"

Gunn frowned at the building with the same apprehension that Kate felt. "Well, I wouldn't go there. But since we're kind of short on options, let's just go and check it out." He looked at Kate. "Better take your crossbow."

Kate didn't feel as safe with the crossbow as she did with the gun, but she held it at ready when they started approaching the hospital.

She thought back on the last few weeks, on the run from Jasmine's minions. They had slept in warehouses, in cars, any kind of cramped place they could find, and they were constantly out of supplies and food. They had to take turns to steal whatever they needed in the dark of night, breaking into shops and unoccupied houses. Kate had thought her life had been pretty short on luxuries before, but it was nothing compared to this.

She laughed softly to herself and Gunn gave her an odd look. "If you thought of something funny, please share. I could use a laugh right about now."

Kate just shook her head. "I was just thinking how ridiculous all this is. We drove all the way from LA, escaping from a mad peace goddess, and ended up *here*? Do you guys do this on purpose?"

An amused smile spread on Gunn's face as well. "I've been asking myself the same thing for the past three years. Or maybe I should have been asking that from Angel. I swear the guy has made finding trouble into an art form. If we had ended up in a nice, normal town that serves at least three fast food chains and has zero population of hellhounds trying to kill us, I'd have thought we'd entered an alternate reality." He frowned. "And in our line of work, that's actually a possibility."

Kate grinned. "Yeah, I'm getting that."

"On the other hand, we're not mindless zombies in Jasmine's happy fun land, so I guess we did something right," Gunn shrugged.

Kate thought about that. Would it have been better to just stay behind, enjoy the warm fuzzy brainwashing as long as it lasted and just ignore the implications of everything that entailed. Because the alternative was that she was now running for her life from faceless monsters in a town made of nightmares. Compared to that, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad to just embrace the cult of Jasmine.

Hell, who was she kidding. She hated that touchy-feely Kumbaya crap. Reminded her of that disaster of a sensitivity training she had gone through with Angel. She shuddered.

They had arrived at what appeared to be the hospital main entrance.

Written in large rusty letters on top of the entrance alcove was the name "BROOKHAVEN HOSPITAL".

The hospital wasn't much more than a huge gray block of concrete. Kate didn't think it would look any more inviting even if it were in function. Right now, it was as abandoned as the rest of the town and all the more off-putting.

"You really think Cordelia would have come here?" Kate said.

"Yeah... no shortage of gloomy here."

Kate snorted. "Well, gloomy's one word for it."

Kate started towards the entrance, but Gunn held her back. "Might not be a good idea to go in there."

"We should at least check if there's anyone there, right?"

Gunn's mouth was set in a tight line. "I'm thinking we might find something else than Cordelia there..."

Suddenly Gunn let go of Kate's arm and stepped a few steps back towards the town.

"Did you hear that?"

"What?"

"Someone's - Shit, that's Fred's voice!" Gunn swirled around to face Kate. "Hurry, we've got to -"

Gunn let out a loud cry and his face twisted in horror.

Kate was immediately on alert. "What is it?"

"Oh god, Kate. No..." Gunn closed his eyes and grimaced, then looked over her shoulder. "What the hell -"

"What do you mean? I don't -"

"I'm - I'm so sorry, Kate..." Gunn's features were stricken. He started slowly backing away. He took one last look at Kate, then turned around and started running back to the town.

Kate couldn't understand what the hell had happened. She lost a precious few minutes just standing there confused. When she finally made a move to run after Gunn, he had already disappeared into the fog.

Kate looked behind her, trying to see what had spooked Gunn so badly. But she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

Instead she saw something wonderful. There was someone inside the hospital entrance.

A man in a blue police uniform.

Disregarding all fears about facing Jasmine's minions, she ran to the entrance.

Finally, there was at least something normal and familiar about this place.


	4. The Hospital On The Hill

xixixix

_4. The Hospital On The Hill_

xixixix

Angel woke up in a wheelchair.

He sat there for a moment, taking in his surroundings. Then he closed his eyes, very slowly and deliberately, and looked down again.

No, he wasn't imagining this either, he was definitely in a wheelchair.

He moved a little and the wheels of the rusty old chair creaked. He tried to get up, but a sharp pain lashed through his chest. Right,_ the arrow_.

Clutching his chest, he gingerly felt the wound. There was still some blood on it, but it seemed like it was slowly closing. It was still more painful than usual, but tolerable by his standards. He assumed it would be fine in a few hours. However, he became aware of another, more distracting problem. His head was now filled with white noise, like a low radio static, and concentration was beginning to require real effort. At least it seemed his eyesight was back.

He sat up straighter in the wheelchair. He seemed to be in some kind of hospital room, but this place must not have been in use for decades. Much like the rest of the town.

The once-white wall tiles were cracked, the floors full of dirt, dust and god knows what else. The equipment looked old-fashioned, stained and rusty. Pale, grayish afternoon light came from a tiny window high up in the wall.

Angel squinted against the light. Behind the light, in a shadowy corner, there was a woman. She stood half hunched-over, hanging her head oddly. She seemed to sense Angel was looking at her. She took a few slouching steps towards him, dragging her left foot as if it had been broken.

As she came under the light, Angel's eyes widened in horror.

Her neck was broken. So were her arms and legs, horribly twisted at the joints. Still, she kept moving towards him, dragging her lifeless corpse with painstaking effort.

She was dressed in an old-fashioned nurse's costume. Although, Angel had never seen any nurses in actual hospitals wear anything that revealing. The costume seemed to be better suited for a pornographic film or as someone's idea of a sexy Halloween outfit.

Her voice was so low and raspy, it took Angel a moment to realize she had spoken.

"You are injured," the nurse was saying.

She held up a rusty old bone saw in one hand and with the other she leaned against an IV stand, its mangled wheels screeching on the floor with every movement. The murky brown liquid from the IV bag dripped to the ground.

"Let me take care of you."

With a grimace, Angel finally got up from the wheelchair.

He retreated to the only door in the room and inspected the dead nurse slouching towards him. She didn't seem to be much of a threat at this point, as she moved much too slowly and awkwardly to carry out any effective attacks.

Still, she could be dangerous, so Angel considered whether it would be worth the effort to try to kill her somehow or just simply walk away. If she was some kind of a zombie, it would be enough if he just ripped off her head.

Then he heard noises coming from the hallway and opened the door slightly. The hallway was long and dim, with no obvious source of light, except at the very end, where a spiralling staircase continued up to the upper levels.

Angel stepped out of the room and listened for the source of the noise. The static in his head had increased in volume and it was getting harder to distinguish other sounds.

There it was again.

The sound came from the dark end of the long corridor. Metal being dragged against concrete. The screeching sound grew louder and louder, echoed and pummeled itself through the darkness towards the light.

Then heavy footsteps.

And as Angel watched, the same dark figure from his room appeared from the shadows and stopped just twenty feet from where Angel stood.

Angel looked down and saw what had been making the noise: a long blade that resembled a meat cleaver. The man must have been dragging it against the floor tiles.

The man lifted up his head and Angel found himself staring at his own eyes. The static became deafening.

The other him smirked.

Then through the foggy static, Angel heard another sound; a thump and a scream coming from upstairs.

"Kate!" he yelled and started running towards her voice.

He spared a quick look over his shoulder, but the other one had already disappeared.

xixixix

Gunn ran blindly back to the town.

The fog was getting so thick he could barely make out the shapes of buildings in front of him anymore, but he didn't slow down. While he sped along the street with near zero visibility, he could just imagine slamming straight into another one of those brick walls before he'd even realize it was there. With the kind of speed he was running he'd probably either smash his face in - or pummel through leaving behind a silhouette of himself like Wile E. Coyote.

Truth was, he couldn't really give a damn about anything right now except finding Fred and the others before it was too late.

It was too late for Kate now.

_Fuck._ He bit his lip. _Don't think about that. Just don't._

When he reached what he thought might be the main street he had to stop to take a breath.

It was damn silent suddenly and he didn't like that one bit.

There was no sign of the ugly hellbeasts they'd encountered earlier, but he'd almost prefer to see them trashing about rather than be encompassed by this complete silence.

He held his trusty hub cab axe at ready and considered his options. It would probably be the best bet to find his way back to the house and see if the others had returned there.

But Fred's voice didn't come from that direction.

She'd been yelling for his name. God, if she had ended up like Kate...

Then he heard it again.

Relief flooded him. Fred's voice, distant but there. But it wasn't calling for him this time.

"Faith! Connor! Where are you?"

Gunn immediately started in the direction of her voice.

"Fred!"

She went quiet, then, "Charles?"

Gunn looked around wildly. Where the hell was she? He could hear her clearly, but couldn't pinpoint which direction her voice was coming from.

"Fred, keep talking! I can't see you!"

"The gas station, Charles! The gas station!"

Gunn frowned. Where the hell did she see a gas station?

Then he realized that there was another side street nearby he had missed. The fog had gathered into a thick white wall in front of it, effectively blocking out the street entrance that was wedged between yet another hardware store and - an ice cream sundae bar?

He entered the street, which continued slightly downhill in a narrow slope. The street was littered with trash and fallen pieces of debris from the decaying buildings surrounding it.

Fred was still calling for him and he was relieved to hear that her voice was getting closer and closer.

Then, he was suddenly standing next to a gas station pump.

Fred ran up to him. "Thank goodness you're here, Charles, I - Umph!"

Gunn hugged her, holding her so tightly against his chest that her feet lifted a few inches from the ground.

Fred was tense at first, but then briefly hugged him in return. Finally, he released her, but couldn't say anything yet. There was suddenly a big lump in his throat, holding back his voice.

Fred smiled hesitantly at him. "Well, I'm really glad to see you too, but -" She took a better look at his face. "What's wrong?"

"Fred... We - oh, shit." He turned his face away for a moment and took a deep aching breath. "Kate's dead," he blurted out. "I just - I don't know what happened. I only turned my back for a moment and then -"

He closed his eyes and then wished he hadn't.

The image of the huge metal blade, sticking through Kate's chest from behind, hit him again. Worse even was the gurgling sound she made when she started choking in her own blood.

When he opened his eyes, Fred was staring at him. Her eyes were wide with shock and disbelief.

"Oh my god... Are you sure? I mean, what happened?"

"I don't know. I just turned away for a moment and - and she was dead. I saw this guy standing behind her and the place was crawling with these creatures that - Did you see them? We were fighting them off earlier here and then Cordelia disappeared. Kate and I went up to the hospital to look for her and -" Gunn grimaced. He just couldn't stop that damn scene from playing in his head. "Fuck! Why didn't I see it coming? I could've saved her, but I didn't even realize what was happening before she'd -"

Fred laid a hand on his arm. "It's okay, it wasn't your fault. This place is just wrong. We should never have come here." She went quiet. "Oh god, poor Kate... We brought her in here..."

They stood in silence for a moment.

Gunn cleared his throat. It felt tight and his voice came out thin and shaky. "What about you? How come you're here all alone? Where's Faith and Connor?"

"Right. Well, see we saw this man standing on the street and we thought it might be Angel, but that would be impossible, because, well, daylight. Then Connor ran after him and Faith ran after Connor, and since I didn't know what to do I ran after both of them. But they were too fast for me. I couldn't keep up with them, so I got lost." Fred took a deep breath. "And then I found this."

She held out her hand. She was clutching a gadget that looked like some kind of a radio. The design was from several decades ago, complete with rounded corners and big clunky buttons. It looked like one of those cheap plastic ones people used to take with them to beaches in an era before portable entertainment was actually, you know, _portable_.

Gunn couldn't figure out what had gotten Fred so excited.

"Is that a radio? Why'd you pick it up?"

"It is a radio and I found it here in the gas station, it was just lying on the ground, making this noise. Listen." Fred held out the radio closer to him, but all Gunn could hear was low static noise.

"Sounds broken to me. I'm guessing there's no reception here," he said.

"Oh, but I did hear some other sounds from it earlier as well. But that's not what I meant. Look at this." Fred turned around the radio and opened the small hatch in the back, where the batteries should have been.

"Why am I not surprised that there are no batteries," Gunn muttered.

"Goes with this place I guess," Fred said. "And well, because we're us. I guess we should be past surprised by weird things anymore..."

Fred inspected the radio. "But I noticed something else -"

The volume of the white noise suddenly started increasing. What had been a low, almost imperceptible hum was now a persistent crackling that grew louder by the second.

Gunn glared at the machine. The damn thing was proving to be as unpredictable as the rest of the town.

"What the hell is it doing now?"

Fred tried turning the volume knob up and down. It didn't make any difference.

"I'm not sure, but it did that earlier when I passed by that wire fence over there. Maybe -"

"Fred, watch out!"

Gunn pushed Fred out of the way and swung his axe down as hard as he could.

He got a pretty good swipe at the writhing figure that had appeared out of nowhere and launched itself at them, but it wasn't a killing blow. The creature recovered quickly and struck its deformed head straight at Gunn's abdomen. Gunn doubled over in pain, dropping the hubcab axe.

He fell to his knees and looked up just in time to see the creature prepare for another attack, when suddenly its head split apart. The creature was dead before it hit the ground.

"Got it," Fred said. She held the axe awkwardly, but firmly in her hands. Dark blood was spattered all over her shirt.

Gunn wheezed painfully, but scrambled back to his feet. "That's my girl," he smiled.

Fred didn't. "Are you okay?"

"I am now."

She gave the axe back to him and returned her attention to the radio.

Gunn looked around, holding the axe. "You think we might get any more surprise attacks?"

Fred shook her head.

She was looking intently at the radio, which was now humming quietly again. "No, that was the only one." She then looked up at Gunn. "And I'm sure of it, because I think I know how this thing works now."

Seeing the fervent determination in her eyes, Gunn had no doubt about that. It was like some of her old fire had been lit up. He had thought he'd never see that look again.

He was so glad to be proven wrong.

"C'mon," Fred said. "Let's go save the others while we still can."

xixixix

The doors creaked as Kate entered the hospital reception area.

The floor was littered with dead oak leaves and dirt that the wind had probably blown in from the cracks in the windows. Other than that, the reception looked surprisingly clean compared to the rest of the town. Sure, it was a little old-fashioned and decadent, but so was everything else in this place.

The police officer Kate had seen was now standing behind the reception counter. Best of all, he looked completely normal and human to Kate, just an elderly man in a nondescript police uniform. But what he was doing working at a hospital reception, she hadn't the slightest idea.

Kate approached him. The man didn't look up at Kate, just kept shifting through various files and papers laid out on the desk.

"Are you looking for family members?" he asked abruptly.

Kate stopped at a safe distance. "Oh, no. Sorry, we were just passing through and... I'm just surprised to see someone here. We didn't realize anyone still lived in this town."

The man ignored her. "We have two victims, one is just arriving from the accident site and the other is a John Doe with two bite marks on their neck. If you are family, please take a seat and wait for the doctor to call your name."

Kate frowned. The pleasant sense of familiarity she had felt after seeing a police officer was now rapidly fading.

"Excuse me, do you know -" Kate started, but trailed off when she saw someone else approaching.

A woman in a wheelchair came into view from a nearby corridor. She passed through the reception area in silence, accompanied only by the creaking of the rusty wheels in her chair. The receptionist didn't seem to take any notice of the woman.

Kate stared at the wheelchair bound woman with increasing unease. There was something familiar about her.

Kate took a few steps towards her, trying to get a look at her face before she disappeared into the shadows of the hallway at the back of the reception area. The woman stopped and turned her head just slightly to look at Kate over her shoulder.

Kate gasped in shock. She nearly dropped her crossbow to the ground.

"Oh my god - mom?"

Suddenly the ground shook and Kate stumbled on her feet. The shaking stopped as abruptly as it had started, but when she had regained her balance, both the police officer and the woman in the wheelchair had disappeared.

She spun around wildly, trying to catch any sight of them. "This is not good, this is not good... Just get the hell out of here, Kate..." she muttered to herself.

But when she turned towards the entrance doors, there was a nurse standing there. At least, Kate thought it was a nurse based on the clothes she was wearing. But it didn't take her long to see that there was definitely something wrong with this particular nurse.

Her limbs were twisted and mangled and her head drooped at an odd angle. She was holding an iron pipe in her hand. Kate would bet anything that this thing wasn't any more hospitable than the faceless creatures they had seen in the town.

Kate lifted the crossbow and took aim. The nurse creature screeched, raised her iron pipe and started running towards Kate. Kate shot her with two arrows, before the unfortunate realization that this thing was as thick skinned as the others had been. The arrows didn't even slow her down.

Left without a way to defend herself, Kate turned and ran.

But the creature was fast and with one long jump and swing, the iron pipe hit Kate's shoulder and she cried out in pain. She ducked out of the creature's way and desperately tried to look for anything she could use as a weapon, but it was too late, because the creature was attacking her again -

"Kate, get down!"

Kate whirled around, surprised and never more pleased to see Angel running towards her from one of the corridors. Kate jumped to the side just as the nurse creature came swinging down her iron pipe again.

With a running jump, Angel kicked off the nurse and she slammed against the opposite wall. Dazed, the nurse wobbled to her feet, but before she had regained her balance, Angel had twisted the iron pipe out of her hand and slammed it right through her head.

The nurse slumped back to the ground, seemingly dead for good.

Angel turned to Kate, panting a little.

"Are you okay?"

Kate got up to her feet and checked her shoulder. There was a scrape there and probably a pretty nasty bruise soon, but she didn't think anything was broken. She moved her arm and winced only a bit.

"Yeah, just a scrape. It'll be fine." Then she frowned and turned to look at Angel. "What are you doing here? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad you are here, but I thought you were resting in the house."

"I really don't know, I'm not even sure how I got here."

"Yeah, how *did* you get here? Last time I checked, it's still daylight outside."

Angel shrugged and leaned against the counter with a pained look on his face. "I woke up in the basement downstairs. There was one of those things -" he pointed at the dead nurse, " - down there as well. Then, I - I left the room and heard you yelling. So, I came up. That's about it."

"This place is seriously creeping me out. I saw someone standing at the reception over there, and then the next minute they were gone."

Angel seemed alarmed by that. "You saw someone else here?"

"Yeah."

"Who was it?"

Kate hesitated. "There was a guy in a police uniform standing at the reception and - a woman in a wheelchair."

Angel looked away, through the entrance windows. "We should get out of here, fast."

"Yeah, tell me about it. This whole town's gone crazy. First we found some pretty damn ugly monsters down in the main street. Then Cordelia got lost, and when we got here Gunn totally flipped out and took off -"

Angel snapped his gaze back to her. "You lost Cordelia? Why, what happened to her?"

"No, I mean, we were fighting those monsters and then she just - disappeared. We came here looking for her, we thought she might have come this way." Kate studied his expression. "So, you didn't see anyone coming here either."

Angel shook his head, the worry in his eyes evident. "No, I haven't seen her."

"You think she came here?"

"No, I don't think she's here." He looked at the dark corridors for a moment, before turning back to Kate. "We should get back to the town as soon as possible, find the others."

Kate walked closer to him. "In case you haven't noticed, it's still daylight out there. How are you gonna get back?"

"You should go back, get the car and drive it here."

Kate didn't like that idea. "You think we should split up? That's not a good idea at all. First of all, you're still injured and who knows what else this hospital's gonna throw at us. Second of all, I don't have any weapons besides the crossbow, which doesn't seem to have any effect at all on these things, and frankly I'm really not looking forward to going wandering out in that mist alone and unarmed."

Angel took hold of the iron pipe sticking out of the nurse's head and with a sickening crunch, pulled it out. "Use this as a weapon."

Kate lifted her eyebrows, but took the iron pipe. "Great, I feel so much safer now."

"It's better than nothing."

"No, it's better if we *don't* split up. C'mon, you must have gotten here somehow. You said you woke up in the basement, right?" Kate asked, Angel nodded. "So, maybe there's a tunnel or something that leads to the town."

Kate went through the small bag she was carrying and pulled out a small flashlight. "And we've got some light as well."

Angel shook his head vehemently. "No, we shouldn't go back to the basement. Whatever's in there, it's worse than what's out there. That much I know."

"Yeah, well, I'm not going out without you."

She looked at Angel for a moment, and knew she had won when he finally averted his eyes from hers.

"Okay, we'll check out if there are any tunnels. If there isn't, you'll go back to the town and bring the car here, okay?"

Kate nodded.

She threw the crossbow over her shoulder and handed the iron pipe back to Angel.

She was surprised when Angel took her hand instead and held it tightly. "No matter what you see in there, Kate, we stick together, all right?"

Kate was taken aback at the intensity behind his words, but agreed. "Got it."

Kate flicked on the flashlight and they started descending the stairs, into the darkness. But when the stench of blood and decay hit her in the dank basement air, Kate couldn't help but think that Angel might have been right.

Whatever waited in here was worse than what was out there.


	5. Encounters With Monsters

xixixix

_5. Encounters with Monsters_

xixixix

Cordelia had been walking in the dark for a long while.

She had given up on trying to find door knobs or windows in the room she had been at first, because after the lights went out, it had stopped being a room. Now all the walls were either metal or stone and seemed to go on and on endlessly.

The inviting grocery store had been just a cruel illusion. It seemed that in whatever reality she was in, she had been trapped in some kind of an underground tunnel.

She was now surrounded by impenetrable darkness, with no way of knowing where she was or where to go. She could have handled the change of surroundings with more success, if only she could have been able to see something, _anything_. Her lack of eyesight made her feel small and vulnerable.

And she was so over feeling vulnerable.

She may not have much left anymore, but she could still muster some of her famous false bravado. Clutching the katana sword in one hand and her bag full of shiny new clothes in the other, she started trying to feel her way out of the tunnels. Although, right now, she would have exchanged the sword for a flashlight in a heartbeat - damn Kate for getting the dips on it first.

"Thanks for the irony, Creepyville," she muttered to herself, "I used to see _too_ much and now I see nothing. Nothing at all." But even that soft sound seemed too loud in the darkness and she kept quiet after that.

She traced her hand along the cold, damp walls. As long as there was a wall she could lean on, she had a direction to go to. She walked slowly, hesitantly putting her feet down where she couldn't see them. A few times she heard something crunch beneath her shoes and she hurried her steps then.

The place was damp. Water kept dripping from the roof.

It hit the ground. Wet splashes. Footsteps.

Cordelia froze. Footsteps?

Oh god no.

She pressed her back flat against the stone wall. She could only pray that whoever was following her had as much trouble seeing in the dark as she did.

Then she heard the voice and her first thought was: _I was wrong. He can see me clear as day._

"Cordelia?"

_Oh god, let it be Angel coming to get me out of this place._

"Angel?" she whispered, her voice was so low and trembling that a human probably wouldn't be able to hear it.

But Angel could.

"Oh, poor Cordelia. All alone in the dark."

Cordelia bit her lip to stop the escaping whimper. She didn't like his tone of voice at all.

"Poor _beautiful_ Cordelia. So lost, so helpless."

No, no, this wasn't right. That wasn't Angel...

He was walking closer with slow, deliberate steps - each resulting in a clear vibrating sound that echoed trough the tunnel. Cordelia could sense that he was only less than six feet away from her now.

"I always wondered, why didn't you come to me?" Angel was saying. "Did you think I wouldn't know what it feels like? Not to know who or what you are anymore?"

The voice was so close now. Cordelia held her breath.

"What were you afraid of, Cordelia?" Angel said, his voice was soft and quiet, but it sounded like he was smiling. Unpleasantly. "Hmm, let me guess... Was it this?"

Cordelia ducked by pure instinct.

The moment she hit the ground something heavy and metallic struck against the wall where her head had been just seconds before.

She screamed and started running. She forgot to trace her way and ran straight into a wall. No. Not a wall. It had budged slightly upon impact. Cordelia searched frantically for a door knob.

"Stay still, honey, you and I need to have a little discussion."

Oh god. It was bad enough to have been trapped alone in the dark.

Now she was trapped alone in the dark, _with Angelus_.

Finally, her fumbling hand found a handle. She flung the door open and screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Help! Someone please help me!"

xixixix

The town was eerily quiet.

Silent Hill certainly lived up to its name, Wesley thought, as he made his way through the main street in complete silence, which the heavy fog seemed to only emphasize. Angel must have been right about the absence of living things in the area; Wesley couldn't even hear bird sounds in the distance, as he expected he should have.

He also couldn't hear any human voices. The others could be anywhere by now, but Wesley had resolved to start calling for them only as a last resort. Not for the first time during their flight from Jasmine, Wesley cursed not being able to use cellphones anymore.

He had made an effort to stay on the main street as long as possible, but soon came upon the brick wall again. He had no choice but to start going through the side streets.

The sun peeked through the heavy clouds above and illuminated the pervasive white mist at an odd angle. Everything appeared hazy and dreamlike, and Wesley had the strangest feeling of being surrounded by clouds, floating high up in the sky.

He shook his head, determined to cling on to whatever sense of reality he had left.

This town was obviously toying with him.

He walked slowly downhill, along a narrow side road that seemed only marginally less ominous than the others. After having to make a left turn, he stopped and peered at the street sign above him. He had to keep track of his location not to get lost in the whiteness.

_Munson Street_.

Wesley looked down at the map he was holding.

He had seen the map in one of the town history books in the living room earlier, and had torn out the page before leaving the apartment. The map was small and probably outdated, but it was clear enough to give a sense of how big the town was.

Turns out, Silent Hill was a lot bigger than he had thought.

The central areas of the town were spread out over a long stretch of land, wedged between the surrounding forests and Toluca lake in the middle.

Wesley squinted at the map and tried to look for any roads that led away from the town. So far he could only see two that went off the map; the first was the main street that was blocked off, and the second a small road that went past an amusement park in the east side of the town - the direction where he was heading. If only he could find the others, they could check the amusement park route. If they could get there by car, it would be their best bet of getting out of Silent Hill without turning back.

Thanks to the map, Wesley had a good idea where he was. Unfortunately, he had no idea at all where anyone else were. Still desperately listening for familiar voices, he walked to the end of the street and realized there were no more buildings. Instead, up ahead were a few trees and then a steep drop down. He could hear water splashing against the shore.

He had arrived at Toluca lake.

Wesley peered over the misty landscape, but couldn't see very far. Sounds of water, leaves rustling and the perpetual white fog. Not much else. He turned back to the town and started heading east, towards an old church.

But then he heard something.

A scream. A very familiar scream.

Wesley looked around and rested his hand against the gun in his bag. Finally, he located the sound to a nearby building. He remembered seeing it on the map, _Silent Hill Historical Society Building_. Whatever that was.

He took a look at the entrance and saw that the door was ajar, but the building looked as abandoned as all the others. As he walked closer to the main doors, he heard the screams again. They seemed to be coming through the shattered basement windows.

"Someone please help me!"

"Cordelia?"

She didn't answer. He could hear sounds of doors slamming, and then running. Wesley hesitated for a moment. This could be another illusion, a lure to get him to lower his guard and enter yet another unknown place.

Yet, if it really were Cordelia down there, running for her life...

Wesley went to the main door and opened it quietly. He put away the map and took out the flashlight. Holding his gun and flashlight at ready, he entered the building.

The reception area was dark and cramped. The front desk was covered under thick layers of grime, and there were faded black and white photographs on the walls. After a quick glance at them, Wesley amended, i_unpleasant photographs_/i. Dust particles swam in the air, shimmering in the ambient light that found its way in through some cracks in the boarded up windows. Wesley held the flashlight higher and took a sweeping look over the reception area.

At the far back, there was a staircase leading downstairs. Wesley couldn't hear sounds from there anymore, but he started descending the stairs, as quietly as he could. He grimaced every time the floorboards creaked under his feet.

He would have almost preferred to hear Cordelia's screaming as opposed to the heavy silence that waited him in the basement. At the base of the stairs was a long, dark corridor. The air was stale and damp; Wesley could hear water dripping from the ceiling. The place must be near the lake.

The only source of light he had now was his flashlight.

He stood still for a moment. He had only two directions to go to, left and right, but he had no idea which direction Cordelia had went.

He turned left.

After walking for a few minutes, he knew he had picked the right one. He could hear hurried steps ahead.

"Cordelia?" he called out.

Wesley picked up pace, his heart was pounding. Who knew what horrors this town could still throw at him...

"Cordelia, where are you? I can't see - Aaah!"

A door flung to his face and Wesley jumped back - just to bang his head against the wall behind him.

"Wesley?" Cordelia peered at him from behind the door. When her eyes landed on him, she pounced forwards and flung her arms around him tightly, further managing to knock the breath out of him.

"Oh, thank goodness you're here!" Cordelia exclaimed, voice muffled against his shirt.

Wesley's eyesight blurred as the sharp pain from the back of his head flared through his skull. He was pretty sure he saw actual stars for a moment.

"Cordelia, could you mind..." he finally managed.

"Right, sorry, got a bit excited there." Cordelia let go of him gingerly and took a step back to look at him. "Boy, am I glad to see you! And erm, sorry about the door... You okay?"

Wesley took a deep breath, steadying himself. "It's all right, it was only the fourth heart attack of the day. First concussion, though."

"Fourth -"

"Never mind." Wesley took a good look at Cordelia. He still wasn't sure whether he could trust that this Cordelia was the real one, but he decided to take the chance. Considering the lack of success he had had in locating the others so far, he didn't have many options. Besides, how many fake Cordelias greeted him by giving him a concussion - and then hugged the figurative life out of him?

"What are you doing here?" he asked Cordelia. "Where are the others?"

Cordelia's relieved smile faded quickly. She glanced around nervously and pointed at Wesley's gun.

"Is that your only weapon?"

"No, I have a few stakes in my bag, why?"

"Good, because I - I dropped my sword somewhere..." She ran a shaking hand through her hair and when she spoke again there was an edge of hysteria in her voice. "There's something really weird going on here, Wesley. I saw - I think I saw Angelus. He was here, and he started chasing me... I mean, how is that even possible? Angel's still at the apartment, right?"

Wesley shook his head grimly. "No, he's not. He disappeared, I don't know where he is. I came looking for the rest of you here in town, but so far I've only found you."

Cordelia's eyes widened. "Angel's - If he's not there, then that might mean... Oh god, it couldn't have really been Angel, could it?"

"I don't know, but whatever it was, we need to get out as soon as possible," Wesley said. "Did you see where he went?"

"No, duh, it's pitch black in here. It's a good thing you have the flashlight. Where'd you come from anyway? Can we get out from there?"

"Yes, there's a staircase that way, we can get upstairs from there," Wesley said, pointing to where he came from. Then he gave the flashlight to Cordelia. "Here, you can have this. I'll back you up."

Holding the gun at ready he turned around and listened. Cordelia was silent as well, but they couldn't hear any other sounds than the dripping water. Satisfied, Wesley nodded at Cordelia and she started leading the way, illuminating the walls with the flashlight.

"It's on the right," Wesley whispered.

They followed the beam of light going across the right side wall.

After a few minutes of silent walking, Wesley started to frown. And then, after a few minutes more, when Wesley still couldn't see the staircase leading upstairs, he started to feel more than slightly worried.

"Oh no, not again..." Cordelia groaned.

"It should be here somewhere, I just came from here..."

"Wesley," Cordelia said and turned around. "This is what happened to me earlier. I got into this building, and it just - trapped me inside. The door disappeared just like that."

Wesley stared at the seemingly endless - doorless - corridor stretching out in front of them, and he couldn't help remembering the strange layout of the apartment building where he had chased Justine's ghost.

He hated to admit it, but Cordelia was probably right. The building had trapped them in.

He took a deep breath and turned back to face Cordelia. She was ashen white.

"I'm right, aren't I?" she said, examining his face.

"Yes. But there must be some way out of here. You don't remember at all where you came from?"

Cordelia shook her head. Quietly, she said, "I was scared out of my mind, Wesley. It was dark and I had no idea where to go. And then Angelus came -"

"It's all right, we'll find a way out." Wesley wasn't so sure about that anymore, but the other option was blind panic and that never worked. At least, not so far. "Let's just keep on going, at least we'll have the flashlight. We might be able to see a door you missed."

Cordelia nodded and they kept walking.

"What happened to the others then?" Wesley asked.

"I don't know..." Cordelia looked at him suddenly. "Did you see those creepy faceless monsters? No? Because they attacked us - Gunn, Kate and me. That's when I lost them. I ran to this grocery store, except that it wasn't really a grocery store, and then I got transported here somehow and - what?"

"Be quiet."

Cordelia huffed at him. "Well, you're the one who asked!"

"No, I heard something, behind us." Wesley stopped and peered into the darkness.

Cordelia was completely still next to him. Then, very slowly, she lifted up the flashlight and pointed it towards the dark corridor they had just been walking.

The flashlight reflected off of a shiny black leather jacket, and the pale face smiling above it.

"Don't let me interrupt you," Angel said.

Cordelia's terrified scream shattered the silence once again.

xixixix

"Did you hear that?"

Faith frowned. "What?"

"Another scream."

"Man, you just keep hearing voices all the time. I'm beginning to think it's time for some serious therapy sessions," Faith said. "Might do some good for you, 'cause hey - you and your dad? Not exactly the poster family for sanity."

Connor glared at her, and she laughed. Man, he was so easy sometimes. Okay, all the time.

"Not that I'm one to judge." She held up her hands and pulled an innocent look. "I've been to more therapy sessions in the past three years than I can care to count. But mostly, we just made a shit load of some origami birds or something. I was getting pretty good at those too. I'll show you sometime if we ever get out of here alive."

"We'll get out," Connor said. "It's not so bad here."

"Right. Well, you'd know, you grew up in hell, so I guess it's pretty cosy in here compared to that."

Connor shot her a look. "Sometimes that place was better than this."

"This town?"

"This dimension."

He smiled at Faith. She raised her eyebrows at that. "Whatever you say, kid."

They walked in silence for a while. She guessed Connor was listening to his 'voices' again or something. They ended up at another street corner, which was pretty much identical to the rest of them. Just another damn street drowning in white fog. She was getting pretty fucking sick of the fog. Where the hell did it all come from anyway? It wasn't even raining.

She squinted up at the sky.

The fog was as thick as ever, but the sky above was clearing up. It was afternoon, the sun had already reached its peak and was now starting to dip lower, towards the horizon. The clouds were getting thinner as the evening approached, so it was actually lighter now than it had been earlier in the day.

Faith tapped her crossbow against her arm impatiently.

They hadn't seen a single trace of the mysterious man they had been chasing since noon. Not even a single demon or a monster jumping out of the fog at them.

Faith was getting god damn bored.

Maybe whoever the hell was lurking in the town and had shot Angel knew that she was the slayer. Maybe they were smart enough to stay out of her way. She guessed that she should be grateful for that, but really, after being cooped up in the car for hours - no, days - she just kind of wanted a decent fight to let off some steam.

Faith sighed. It seemed like she had to resign to the fact that she wasn't getting a workout today either.

"It's getting late, we should probably head back and see what the others are up to," Faith said. Where were they anyway? They hadn't seen any of their group members either, at least not since they had lost sight of Fred. This town was like a fucking maze.

Connor was standing still again, looking at yet another desolate alleyway.

"Let me guess, you heard some 'voices' again?" Faith said.

"No. I saw something."

Okay, some change at least.

She started approaching the alley slowly. Connor was walking beside her with a stealthiness that she had to admit she kind of envied - she supposed it must be some kind of vampire gene he had got from Angel, the master of lurking.

Then they both saw it and froze.

Not it - her.

"What the fuck?"

There was a woman standing right at the mouth of the alleyway, calmly staring at them. She was covered in something dark and grimy from head to toes - and that something dark and grimy looked a hell of a lot like blood.

And the part that disturbed Faith the most - and there was no way around this - was that this woman bore more than a passing likeness to Faith herself. It was hard to tell, what with the woman covered in blood and all, but Faith was pretty sure she could recognize herself if she ever happened to run into a doppelganger.

And it looked like she just had.

Connor frowned in disbelief. He flickered his gaze between the two Faiths.

"Is that - you?" he whispered.

"Looks like."

"So, should we attack her?"

The other Faith made that decision easy for them. She lifted up a crossbow and fired at them.

"Fuck!" Faith ducked out of the way quickly and then rolled back to her feet smoothly. She looked at Connor. "Let's go get that bitch!"

Connor nodded with a grim smile.

They ran after the fleeting figure, but didn't get far. The alleyway ended shortly in a high brick wall and there were no doors anywhere in sight.

Connor spun around, confused. "Where did she go?"

Faith looked up, the buildings must have been at least 30 feet high on both sides, no way she could have - or could she?

"Faith..." Connor said then.

She recognized the warning tone in his voice. She turned to follow his gaze and saw the creatures gathering at the alleyway entrance.

Damn doppelganger bitch had led them to a trap.

She'd never seen anything like these creatures, though. They were faceless monstrosities unlike any demons she had seen, and they were making some fucking weird trashing movements as if they were trying to get out of their own skin. But the good thing was, the bastards didn't have any weapons - or arms, for that matter.

Faith grinned.

It looked like she was going to get to kick some ugly demon ass after all.

She looked over at Connor. "Dips on the three on the left."

Connor scowled at her. "That leaves only two."

"Yeah, well, the fast eat the slow."

With that she fired her crossbow towards the creatures. When that didn't have any effect on them, she threw away the crossbow and started hacking at them with her sword. Next to her, Connor had already gotten one down with his axe.

The bastards were unexpectedly fast and strong, but not fast enough for a slayer. She'd had to deal with much worse than this. They had annihilated the creatures in short order. Faith pulled away her sword from the last body and kicked it away.

Connor came to stand next to her.

He wiped away some dark blood from his face with the back of his sleeve. He was out of breath and hunched over slightly, but he had a stupidly bright grin on his face.

Faith returned his grin.

The adrenaline rush from the kill was more than welcome after a long period of inaction. And she knew Connor felt it too - he had the instincts of a predator.

Just like Faith did.

Their eyes were locked and Connor moved closer. Faith recognized the look in his eyes all too well. She thought about it.

She had thought about it a lot.

But when Connor reached out for her, she pushed his hands away.

Connor's smile fell.

"Cool down, kid," she said and turned back to the street. "Let's go see if there's anything else to kill."

Or anyone.

* * *

**Thank you** to the readers who left reviews on this story. They're much appreciated!  
Just to let you know that this story is currently planned to be about 13 chapters long, it might become longer still, but you can expect at least that many chapters. :)

If **Amy** (who left a review on The Children's Prison) is reading this story, please check the additional notes on The Children's Prison. I wrote you a 'thank you' there, because your review really made my day. :)


	6. Paths Align

xixixix

_6. Paths Align_

xixixix

They had been able to get through the hospital basement without disturbance, despite Angel's initial fears of what they might find there.

It turned out Kate had been right; there was indeed a tunnel leading away from the hospital and towards the town. They passed through the underground levels of the hospital building quickly; Angel had smelled the blood coming through unhinged doors, suggestive of more than a few surgical operations gone horribly wrong, but he hadn't stopped for a second to inspect their surroundings.

His only concern now was to find Connor and his friends as soon as possible and leave this place, whether it meant risking capture by Jasmine or not.

After entering the tunnel, he had given up walking and started to run, holding on to Kate's hand tightly. She was struggling to keep up with his frantic pace, her flashlight drawing dizzying patterns of light on the surrounding stones. The damp walls glistened with water dripping from holes in the ceiling - and at places something oozed from the walls and formed murky brown puddles on the ground.

Angel paid no mind to any of those things either. He had caught a scent and followed it like a lifeline.

Fresh air.

Sense of time seemed to lose meaning in the lightless tunnel, and Angel had no idea how long they had been running when they suddenly came to a stop.

He frowned at the metal bars blocking their way for a moment, before he let go of Kate's hand to try how steady the bars were - way too steady, it seemed. The tunnel beyond the bars stretched as far into the shadows as he could see.

Kate came to stand next to him and peered through the bars.

"It doesn't look like we can get through here," she said. "Hey, wasn't there a door a while back?"

"Yeah, yeah... You're probably right."

"Angel?"

He saw her looking at him, concerned. He turned away from her and rubbed his eyes tiredly.

Maybe he had been running a bit too fast. He didn't want to admit it to Kate, but he was getting more and more tired by the minute. He hadn't gotten any proper sleep - or blood - for nearly two days now, the arrow wound was aching and the strange white noise kept following him everywhere in this place.

Not to mention that Cordelia was missing, he had gotten lost with Kate in seemingly endless tunnels beneath the town that either tried to kill them or drive them insane, and above ground who knew what had happened to the others, to Connor...

All in all, a worse day than usual - which was really saying something in his case. He closed his eyes for a moment, struggling against the overwhelming weariness, and then turned back to face Kate.

She was searching the stones around the metal bars with her flashlight.

"You know what, this might actually be a gate. I can see hinges on this side." She turned to look at him, and smiled with something resembling relief. "If it's not locked, we might get through here after all..." She trailed off and frowned after seeing his expression.

"What is it?"

"Kate, get away from the bars, now," he said, trying very hard to remain calm.

Angel's eyes were transfixed on the tunnel behind the bars. He could see someone darker than the shadows watching them; the shape of a tall man stood still, soundless and waiting.

By now, he recognized what the sudden increase in the static noise meant, and he quickly reached out for Kate's hand, but was shocked to see he wasn't fast enough.

Kate yelped in pain as her other arm was violently pulled back and slammed against the bars. The flashlight she had been holding dropped to the ground and its narrow beam of light glinted off from a large metal blade, just behind the bars.

Kate was frantically struggling against the sudden assailant, but his grip on her arm didn't budge an inch. Angel didn't even try to pull her back, since it would most likely only end up breaking her arm. Instead, he focused on the man behind the bars. Gathering his strength, he lifted the iron pipe and brought it down on the man's shoulder as hard as he could.

And it worked; the man let go off Kate for a second and that was enough, as Angel quickly took hold of her free hand and started dragging her away from the metal bars.

He glanced behind his shoulder and saw that the man was still standing there, and by his feet, the sharp edge of a metal blade stood out like a sliver of lightning in the dark. But soon even that bit of light disappeared from view, as they were now running further away from their only light source, back into the labyrinthine darkness.

Kate seemed to have gathered enough of her strength that she could now run on her own, but Angel still didn't let go of her hand. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

"What the hell was that?" Kate said, once her breath had caught up with her. She was holding his hand tightly and he could feel the blood rushing under her skin. She was terrified.

"I don't know, but we have to find a way out, fast. You said you saw a door somewhere here?"

"Yeah, it - it was just a while back... But how are we going to find it? I can't see a thing!" She was starting to sound panicked. Angel couldn't blame her; panic was pretty high on his list right now as well, but he concentrated on trying to listen for any footsteps following them. He couldn't slow down yet, they were still too close to the other him.

He was once again running with such careless speed that he barely even noticed the door until it was right in front of them. It was Kate who had to pull him to a stop and point it out to him. There was a straight line of light parallel to the walls, near the ground. That could only be a door - with a light source behind it.

They stopped in front of the door, and Angel listened for a moment, trying to catch any suspicious sounds, but at the moment he could only hear the sounds of dripping water.

He reached for the door and flung it open.

And straight into someone's face.

"Umph!"

He heard someone fall to the ground and someone else let out a high-pitched shriek.

A very familiar shriek.

"Ouch! Wes? Was that you?"

"Cordelia?"

"Oh my god, it's him! Wesley!"

Angel tried to make sense of what was happening. Then a bright light shone over him and Kate, and for a brief moment it completely blinded him. Once he had recovered his eyesight he realized he was staring right at Cordelia's shocked face. Wesley was sitting on the ground in front of him, holding his head with a pained look.

But once the light beam settled on to Angel's face, both their expressions changed.

So did Angel's. He smiled brightly at them, not even knowing whether what he was seeing was real or not, but he was too relieved to care about that at the moment. Just seeing Cordelia and Wesley's familiar faces made him feel a thousand times better than a moment ago.

"Cordelia, Wesley! You're here!" he said. Then added a bit more uncertainly, "How come you're here?"

Instead of a warm welcome, Cordelia threw a pile of clothes on his head. "Stay away from us, you sicko!"

Angel pulled off the various colorful garments blocking his eyesight, and saw that Cordelia and Wesley were both staring at him with open hostility. His smile started to fade, then realization hit.

"You both saw me before, didn't you?"

"Yeah, and you attacked us! We barely even got away, and - and now you're here again..." Cordelia said. She was about to start rummaging through her bag for more offending silk blouses, when her eyes drifted over to Kate, standing uneasily behind Angel. Cordelia's eyebrows rose in surprise. "And you're with Kate... Wait, is Kate evil now as well?"

"Not that I know of, although some people might tell you otherwise," Kate said, trying for a wry smile. "But I'm really glad to see you again. Gunn and I couldn't find you anywhere, we thought you'd... But you're alive - right?"

"Right." Cordelia smiled, a bit more successfully than Kate. "And likewise, I'm really glad to see you too, evil or not."

Angel looked at them both with profound relief, then turned his attention to Wesley, who seemed to be lost in thought. Wesley had made no effort to move from the ground, and instead he was staring intently at Angel's shirt.

"Your wound is bleeding," Wesley said.

Angel frowned, for a moment there he had forgotten about the wound. It suddenly didn't seem so important anymore. "Oh yeah, but it's getting better, I guess. But listen you guys, about the other -"

"You mean Angelus?" Cordelia said, her expression tight and hurt. "Because we saw you - or him, whatever, in psycho mode with the biggest knife I've ever seen and, let me just say, that is not an experience I care to repeat. How can we trust that you're not going to do the same thing?"

Seeing the fear and distrust on their faces stung. Angel suddenly felt weary again.

"I saw myself as well. It wasn't real." He sighed. "I mean, it wasn't really me." He saw Kate looking at him curiously, but thankfully she didn't ask anything. Angel wasn't sure whether she had seen who the assailant was or not, but now she could have a pretty good guess.

"Felt pretty real to me..." Cordelia said quietly.

"Are you all right?" he asked her, not knowing what else to do. She shook her head, and he didn't really expect any more of an answer from her. He looked at Wesley, still sitting on the ground and holding his head.

He offered his hand to Wesley. "How about you?"

Wesley stared at his hand for a moment. "I'm all right, aside from having now yet another concussion..." He ignored Angel's questioning look and finally took the offered hand. Angel hauled him back to his feet, but Wesley avoided meeting his eyes. Instead, Wesley turned to address Cordelia. "The person we saw earlier didn't have an arrow wound in his chest, like he does." He then looked at Angel, eyes cold but not hostile anymore. "I think he's the real one."

"Yeah, I'm real... I hope." Angel smiled at them weakly. He felt Kate squeeze his hand in affirmation and was grateful for that.

Cordelia looked at him nervously; she seemed to be on the brink of a break down at any moment. "What is happening here?" she said, her voice shaking. "What is this place doing to us, I just don't get it..."

"Cordelia, it's all right," Angel said softly. "We'll figure it out."

Cordelia turned away from them and Angel saw her wipe her eyes inconspicuously. He looked over at Kate helplessly.

He was relieved to see Kate got the hint. She cleared her throat and turned to Wesley. "So, you guys got lost too, huh?"

"Yes, I'd say that about sums it up," Wesley replied wryly. "Just couldn't miss the chance of getting acquainted with this town's sewage system."

Kate snorted. "Yeah, figured as much."

Cordelia turned back to them, her eyes were red-rimmed, but she seemed to have found some equilibrium. She mustered up a sarcastic smile at Kate. "Yep, good old stinky tunnels. Gotta love 'em. I'm thinking of buying my own smelly sewer patch and joining the neighborhood monster watch already."

Angel smiled at her, but she was still avoiding his eyes. Instead, he turned his attention towards their surroundings and realized they were in another tunnel, seemingly identical to the one they had just left. He looked up and saw water dripping from the roof again - except there was a lot more of it now.

Water...

"What do we do now?" Kate asked. "More aimless wandering? 'Cause that's been working _so_ well for us so far."

"That's not necessary," Angel said, finally able to convey some much needed confidence. "We just have to follow the water."

Wesley was still looking at him with a guarded expression, but Angel could see some of that fading as curiosity got the better of him.

"The water?"

"Yeah, I can sense there's a large body of water nearby. There's fresh air and sounds of flowing water coming from this tunnel."

Wesley nodded. "That would be Toluca lake," he said, which only earned him blank stares. He smiled and explained, "I found a map of Silent Hill. Once we get to the surface, I know where to go."

"Way to go, Wes!" Cordelia grinned.

Angel and Kate exchanged relieved looks as well. Kate smiled at Angel. "Show us the way, then."

As Angel started heading them towards the strengthening scent of fresh air, Kate turned to Cordelia, looking amused. "I never thought I'd be glad to have a vampire bloodhound on my side."

"Tell me about it!" Cordelia said. She was starting to sound like her old self again.

Angel smiled to himself. He was feeling far better now that he had gotten three of his friends back alive already. Now he'd just have to find Connor and the remaining friends, and then they would all be back together again.

But then he heard the sound of metal screeching against the ground from somewhere in the distant tunnels behind them and hurried his steps.

They were so close to getting out already, he wouldn't let anything stop them now.

xixixix

Fred peered up at the broken fluorescent sign above them, spelling out _Heaven's Night_ in a curly purple lettering. Next to her, Gunn was frowning in disbelief.

"A bar? Your magic radio brought us to a dingy bar?" Gunn said.

"First of all, it's not *my* magic radio, and second of all, are you surprised we might find Faith in a bar?"

"Good point."

Gunn pushed the door open and got immediately attacked.

Fred ducked out of the way by instinct, but Gunn had grabbed the fist swinging towards them in a tight hold in seconds. Faith blinked at them, and then looked at her fist held still by Gunn's hand.

She pushed him away with a slight grin.

"Oh, it's just you guys."

"_Just you?_" Gunn grumbled. "Where's the joy, the celebration, at seeing your dear old friends alive and kicking?"

"Yeah well, maybe if I saw any dear old friends of mine."

Gunn grinned at her and they did that complicated high five thing again that Fred thought was both cool - and also made her feel kind of jealous, she had to admit.

Connor was looking at them cautiously from the side. "How'd you guys find us anyway?"

"With this." Fred lifted up the radio, and after seeing Connor's confused look explained, "It's a radio."

Connor frowned at it, he never did seem to like any technical devices. He was kind of like Angel in that regard, Fred thought absently.

"A radio? Is that some kind of a tracking device?"

Gunn snorted. "Not usually, but this one's special. Don't ask me about it, though. It's Fred's baby."

Fred inspected the radio once again. She couldn't help but find it fascinating. For one, it seemed to have a purely supernatural energy source, having nothing visible powering it, and the signals it was transmitting were unusual to say the least. Fred wasn't quite sure how exactly the radio worked, but at the moment she had two theories. One was that the demons in this town were emitting some form of electromagnetic radiation and the radio had been designed to intercept and then convert only those specific radiation frequencies into audible sound signals, the strength of the signal depending on the creatures' proximity to the radio. Her other theory was that something in the town - or the _town_ _itself_ - was the source of the radio waves and the creatures were somehow causing interference in the static, which conveniently amplified the signal volume to warn off against them.

But then the radio had thrown her for a loop after she had discovered that not only could it pick up frequencies indiscernible to human ears, but it also picked up human voices. Perhaps the radio possessed more supernatural capabilities than she had thought. She smiled at the clever little thing and then looked up to find the others staring at her. Perhaps she had gotten a bit distracted again.

Smiling a little sheepishly, she explained, "We heard Faith's voice coming from the radio, and just followed the strength of volume to this direction. It serves as a very efficient tracking device to be honest, and not only that, but we can also hear the presence of any demons, or monsters, nearby. It is very useful."

Faith came over and stared at the radio. "So, you're telling me that this little box here told you where to find me, and also if any nasties were about to kick your ass?"

"Yes, exactly." Fred beamed. She felt inordinately proud of her discovery.

"Cool," Faith said, looking almost impressed. She slapped her hands together. "So, all we gotta do now is find the rest of our rag-tag team with the magic box and get the hell out of dodge."

Gunn's face fell and Fred looked over at him. She decided to spare him the pain of bearing bad news again.

"Actually, we won't be able to get everyone back together anymore. Something terrible happened when Gunn and Kate went to look for Cordelia..." She sighed heavily. "Someone killed Kate. We don't know who, but there is obviously someone out there after us."

"Kate's dead? Shit, I'm sorry you guys... I mean, I didn't really know her, but she seemed pretty cool for an ex-cop," Faith said, and she actually did appear sincere to Fred for once.

Fred nodded and looked at Gunn, who had turned his head away. He would probably feel guilty about that for a long time to come.

"Angel liked her," Connor said suddenly. "I mean, you know..." He trailed off, as if embarrassed he had spoken at all. Fred looked over at him, surprised. She hadn't realized Connor was that observant - and especially about something to do with Angel.

"He did?" Faith seemed surprised as well. "Huh. It's that blond thing again, isn't it?"

Fred felt weary. She could just imagine Angel's reaction once they told him that one of them had gotten killed. The one person Angel had sought out in LA to take along with them in the first place.

The atmosphere in the room had gotten quiet again - it just figured that their reunion didn't prove out to be that happy after all. Sometimes Fred felt like she was the only one still keeping everyone together. She was the one who had first seen the true face of Jasmine, and she was the one who had freed Angel and then the rest had followed. She tried not to snap when her nerves were frayed and not to break when she felt scared, because sometimes it seemed that if she did, the rest would follow again.

She thought about Angel and Connor fighting constantly, Wesley and Gunn's awkward silences, Cordelia's strange mood shifts, and Faith and Kate hovering in the background, not sure whether to try to fit in or be glad that they didn't. Although, Kate didn't have that problem anymore...

Fred took a deep breath and collected herself. _No_, she thought, she would not let herself and the others down. She had survived through so much already.

Wanting to break the uncomfortable silence before she would start dwelling on any more maudlin thoughts, she decided to turn her attention to yet unanswered questions. Looking at Faith, she asked, "Where did you and Connor go earlier? I completely lost sight of you in that mist."

Faith shrugged. "Oh, we went around in circles, that was fun. Kicked some monster ass, you know, the usual."

"So, you didn't find that man we saw earlier?"

"Nope. Couldn't see shit in that fog anyway." Faith and Connor shared a look at that, and Fred had a feeling they weren't telling everything.

"And? So you decided to come into _a bar_, instead of looking for us?"

Faith grinned. "Yeah. I thought we might as well grab a free drink here, there's bound to be some moldy wine bottles here or something. I'm gonna need something extra for dealing with this shit-hole town."

Fred looked at her, disapproving. "You came here to drink? And you brought Connor to a bar, he's a minor, he's not allowed to drink yet! Wait until Angel hears about this..."

"Fred, I think underage drinking is the least of our problems now..." Gunn said. He seemed to be slowly coming out of his stupor. "Because, honestly, I could use a drink right about now too."

"That's two votes for booze!" Faith said and started towards the bar before Fred could start complaining again. She leaned over the counter and looked for the liquor cabinet.

"This bar is not self-service, young lady."

Faith jumped back from the counter, spinning around and looking for the source of the voice.

Then everyone cried out in surprise as a man straightened himself up from behind the counter. The man ignored them and simply started wiping a beer glass with a dirty cloth.

Fred was taken aback at how _normal_ he looked, compared to the only other creature she had seen in this town. This man could pass for an actual bartender, albeit a very stereotypical looking one - with a weird apron and a corny eighties mustache.

"Where the hell did you come from?" Faith demanded. She had already gotten out her crossbow and was aiming it at the man.

"I work here." The man shrugged. "Have been for - about five years now, I guess. And your friend over there is right. No minors are allowed in this bar. The age limit is twenty-one, as you should well know."

"That's bullshit! So far I've only seen monsters in this town, and I'm betting you're one of them too," Faith said. "And if you're not, what the hell is up with that mustache? Cheesy porn fetish much?"

The bartender smiled and shook his head. "Faith, you are always so temperamental. You should work on your attitude or you might wind up in prison again."

Gunn raised his axe and took a step closer to the man. "And how the hell do you know about that?"

"Jasmine knows all about all of you," the bartender said. His smile kept spreading. "Jasmine loves you and she wants you to come back to her."

"Oh fuck! Not this again!" Faith started backing away.

"Oh no, now Jasmine knows we're here!" Fred cried out. And she had thought things couldn't get any worse. "Now we *really* have to get out of here, and fast!"

Without waiting to see the bartender's reaction, they all rushed out of the dingy bar and back onto the street.

Connor looked back at the bar entrance.

"Maybe we should have killed him, since he knows we're here."

"No, Connor, we don't kill humans!" Fred chastised him. "At least... well, not usually. Besides, just the fact that he saw us means Jasmine already knows."

Connor shrugged. "He could be lying. Maybe he wasn't a human. A lot of things in this town haven't been real."

Fred was about to ask him what else he had seen that wasn't real, but then the radio crackled. "Wait, can you guys hear that?"

"Yeah, your psycho radio is making noises again." Gunn frowned at it.

"So what's up? We've got any incoming monsters?" Faith asked, scouting the foggy grounds, crossbow poised for attack.

"No..." Fred bit her lip in concentration. "There! That's - that's -" Her face spread into a smile. "That's Cordelia's voice!"

They all gathered closer to the radio and tried to make some sense of the constant white noise it was transmitting.

"And that's Angel's voice!" Fred exclaimed. "Maybe he and Wesley went looking for us. They must have found Cordelia!"

Gunn looked utterly relieved.

"Do you think you can find them with this thing?" Faith said skeptically.

"I found you, didn't I? Let's go!"

Fred lifted up the radio and pointed it upwards until she could clearly hear the sound getting stronger. When she picked up a good signal, she nearly laughed in relief.

"This way, we can find them!"


End file.
